Gunmen were withdrawing from the streets and shops were reopening on the first day of a cease-fire between Shiite militants and U.S.-backed Iraqi forces following two months of intense clashes. Authorities in Baghdad's Sadr City reported no violence Sunday.
According to the AP, the government said it retained the right to chase wanted men and search houses in order to confiscate weapons. Thousands of civilians have fled their homes in the teeming slum and aid groups said some areas are desperately short of food and medicine after seven weeks of street battles.
The latest conflict flared in late March after the Iraqi PM ordered a crackdown on armed Shiite factions in the southern city of Basra.
Meanwhile, the U.S. military on Sunday said four people, including a woman and a child, were killed in an operation against al-Qaeda in Iraq near the northern city of Mosul on Saturday. The military regretted killing "civilians" in the operation against what was described as associates of foreign al-Qaeda fighters. The woman and the child were riding in the same vehicle with the gunmen, it said.
Iraq's security forces on Saturday launched a new operation against al-Qaeda in Mosul. About 140 people have been arrested in raids and some 120 roadside bombs were seized in a house in western Mosul, a police official said Sunday.
The American army on Sunday also announced that one U.S. soldier was killed when the vehicle he was traveling in rolled over near al-Asad.
© 2008 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
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