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Al-Sadr extends cease-fire by 6 months
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| Contributor | kal |
| Last Edited | kal Feb 22, 2008 07:35am |
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| Category | General |
| Media | Newspaper - USA Today |
| News Date | Friday, February 22, 2008 01:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr announced Friday that he will extend a cease-fire order to his Shiite Mahdi Army by another six months, giving Iraq a chance to continue its fragile recovery from brutal sectarian violence.
The decision was revealed in a message read by clerics during prayer services.
"According to an order by Sayyid Muqtada, activities of the Mahdi Army will be extended ... for another six month period," al-Sadr's aide Hazim al-Aaraji said, using an honorific during his sermon at the Kazimiyah mosque in Baghdad.
Al-Sadr's decision to halt the activities of his powerful militia last August was one of three critical steps that have been widely credited with bringing the Iraqi death toll down more than 60% in recent months.
The other pieces of the puzzle are the so-called surge of U.S. troops and the move by U.S.-backed Sunni fighters to switch allegiances and start working against al-Qaeda in Iraq.
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