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  Planned Raids of Shiite Districts Called Off
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ContributorArmyDem 
Last EditedArmyDem  Apr 05, 2008 05:38pm
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CategoryNews
MediaNewspaper - Washington Post
News DateSaturday, April 5, 2008 11:00:00 PM UTC0:0
DescriptionBy Ernesto LondoƱo
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, April 5, 2008; Page A09

BAGHDAD, April 4 -- Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Friday aborted plans to continue raiding Shiite militia strongholds, an apparent attempt to avoid a protracted standoff with powerful Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

Maliki, who on Thursday had vowed to send troops into Sadr City and other largely lawless parts of the capital to root out what he called criminal gangs, said in a statement that he decided against it to maintain a cease-fire reached Sunday after several days of fierce fighting sparked by a government offensive in the southern port city of Basra.

The offensive, and a series of clashes it triggered in Basra and elsewhere in the country, exposed weaknesses among Iraqi troops and led to a level of violence the country had not seen since last spring. The fighting stopped Sunday after Sadr asked his men to put down their weapons; his deputies had reached a cease-fire agreement with a delegation of Iraqi Shiite politicians.

The violence was felt intensely in the fortified Green Zone, where a barrage of rockets fired from eastern Baghdad killed two Americans.

The United Nations said this week that at least 713 people were killed during the clashes, which lasted from March 25 to April 1. The fighting left at least 1,541 people wounded, according to the organization. The majority of victims were civilians, it said.
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