BAGHDAD: After 10 weeks of fierce combat, an odd sense of normalcy has returned to this capital's most embattled neighbourhood.
The break in running clashes between US troops and Shia Muslim militiamen loyal to the outspoken Muqtada Sadr has brought a tenuous peace to the sprawling district known as Sadr City.
By most accounts, Sadr's declaration of truce two weeks ago was a collateral benefit of Iraq's return to a semblance of self-rule. The militantly anti-US leader has expressed a strong desire that his popular movement be represented in national elections scheduled for January.
Sadr wants a place at the bargaining table as a political leader, not a warlord. "We are not terrorists as some are describing us," said Sheik Abdul-Hadi Darraji, the manager of Sadr's compound in Sadr City. "We are serving our country."
The compound was twice destroyed in US attacks in the spring - and twice rebuilt. On the outside wall, black and green flags memorialize young men who lost in fighting against the 'infidels' from Najaf to Karbala to Baghdad.
In one-sided battles, US troops killed as many as 900 militiamen in Sadr City since April. There are no accurate figures for civilian casualties. US troops who have resumed regular foot patrols in the community of about 2.5 million have hardly been shot at in recent days.
Masked gunmen outfitted in black no longer roam the streets or peer from alleys, grenade launchers at the ready. The US-backed district council held its first meeting in more than three months on Wednesday.
The sessions were suspended after the slaying of the council's former president, one of two neighbourhood representatives found beaten to death and strung from street lamps. A crude sign attached to a slain councilman's chest proclaimed: "This is the fate of collaborators and spies."
Sadr's representatives cited the 'public interest' when they declared a truce last month. By the US Army's account, influential Shia tribal sheiks pressured Sadr to urge his fighters to lay down their arms.
"There is a clear groundswell here that says, 'Calm down the violence,'" said Lt Col. Gary Volesky, who heads the 1st Cavalry battalion that patrols Sadr City. "We know we're not going to win this thing by fighting, by pulling the trigger."
Though virulently anti-American, Sadr's faction is separate from the largely Sunni Muslim insurgency that began attacking US troops and their allies a year ago. Former loyalists of Saddam Hussein are thought to be leaders of that armed insurgency, along with anti-US nationalists and religious militants, both Iraqi and foreign.
The Sunni-led insurgency wants the new interim government to fail. By contrast, Shia activists - including Sadr's movement - back the idea of a new government that is representative of the majority Shia population.
Many in Sadr City and other Shia enclaves fear that the current turmoil in Iraq could result in the return of Hussein's Baath Party apparatus. Since the truce, Al Mahdi fighters have stashed away their weapons and are out sweeping the streets and directing traffic.
Like all private militias here, the Al Mahdi army is technically illegal. Sadr has rebuffed US calls to disband it. "Everybody wants the situation here to return to normal," said Jassim Mohammed, a 33-year-old shopkeeper and Al Mahdi militiaman.
But there is no moderation of in one of Sadr's principal goals: the departure of US and other foreign forces from Iraqi soil. "Each Iraqi refuses the presence of a single American soldier on our territories," Darraji said. "If we want to enjoy true sovereignty, there should be no interference from Americans or other outsiders."
The Sadr movement would like to see its militia integrated with US-trained Iraqi police - a proposal American military officials view as a power grab. In a country where arms can mean influence, analysts say Sadr is hesitant to disband his militia without some guarantees that he will hold some political power in Iraq.
After months of fighting, mainstream Shia leaders long hostile to Sadr now reluctantly recognize him as part of a broader Shia front vying for power. How the interim Iraqi government plans to treat Sadr remains to be seen, though there has already been talk of an amnesty for him on the charge that he killed a rival cleric. US commanders on the ground, however, see no role for the Al Mahdi army. - Dawn\The LAT-WP News Service (c) The Los Angeles Times.