US forces lift Sadr city 'siege'
31/10/2006| IslamWeb
US forces have begun lifting checkpoints set up along the southern edge of the
The move follows a request from Nuri al-Maliki,
Iraqi and
Earlier, a statement from al-Maliki's office said: "The commander-in-chief, prime minister Nuri al-Maliki, has ordered the lifting of all barriers and checkpoints to open roads and ease traffic in
All checkpoints should be removed by 5pm (1400 GMT) on Tuesday, it said.
The order appeared to be a step by al-Maliki to assert his authority at time of tension between him and the
The checkpoints had initially been installed by the
Disobedient
A local cleric loyal to al-Sadr ordered protests at what he called a US military "siege" of the sprawling slum.
Al-Sadr is a member in the Shia bloc that dominates
He is the leader of the Mahdi Army which is an Iraqi nationwide movement that controls police and much else in
An abortive US raid against an alleged death squad leader in
It was also caused friction between his government and Washington, which wants him to disband militias like the Mahdi Army, whose political leaders underpin his parliamentary majority.
In a statement addressed to local supporters on Monday, al-Sadr warned of unspecified action if the military's "siege" continued.
"If this siege continues for long, we will resort to actions which I will have no choice but to take, God willing, and when the time is right," he said in the statement.
He also criticised what he called the silence of politicians over actions by the
Photo Caption
A blast that killed 33 people in