BAGHDAD, Aug 30: Shia leader Moqtada al Sadr on Monday ordered his militia to end attacks on US and Iraqi government forces and said he would soon unveil plans to pursue his goals through politics rather than conflict.
Iraq's interim government has been pressuring Moqtada Sadr, whose Mehdi Army militia launched two uprisings in Iraq this year, to abandon armed resistance and to enter the political arena before elections due to be held in January.
"The Mehdi Army is now turning to peaceful struggle. We will have to see in the future - that could change. But now it is peaceful," Sadr aide Sheikh Mahmoud al Sudani said.
"Moqtada will declare his participation in Iraq's political process. He will not participate directly in elections but he will appoint and back someone from his side or elsewhere."
Moqtada Sadr's fighters battled US and Iraqi forces in Najaf for three weeks this month until the country's most revered Shia leader, Ayatollah Ali al Sistani, returned from his London hospital bed on Thursday to broker a peace deal.
The deal only covered Najaf and sporadic clashes between Sadr's fighters and US-led soldiers continued in other Shia-dominated areas, including Baghdad's Sadr City. -Reuters
