Al-Sadr offers a deal to halt fight

BAGHDAD -- Radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Sunday ordered his followers to lay down their weapons, offering Shiite Muslims a way out of six days of fighting that has left more than 350 people dead and exposed the weakness of Iraq's government and security forces.

Al-Sadr demanded, in a declaration broadcast from mosques in his Baghdad strongholds and across southern Iraq, that the government in turn stop what he described as random raids and release his followers from detention.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki welcomed al-Sadr's initiative as a "step in the right direction," and Baghdad authorities said an around-the-clock curfew would be lifted in most areas this morning. But aides also vowed to press on with efforts to clear Basrah of "outlaws" who have used violence to establish power and influence in the southern oil hub.

Al-Maliki staked his reputation on the crackdown, which began Tuesday, vowing to remain in Basrah until law and order were restored. But the campaign instead revealed the strength of al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia, which fought more than 28,000 government troops to a standstill in parts of Basrah and pounded Baghdad's fortified Green Zone with days of rocket and mortar fire.

The government appeared to have misjudged the level of resistance it would face in Basrah or how quickly the fighting would spread, drawing in U.S. and British forces to provide stepped-up air support and limited ground assistance.

Al-Sadr's statement came after two senior Shiite lawmakers allied with al-Maliki sought a meeting with the cleric to negotiate a way out of the crisis.

"If anyone comes out a winner, it's Sadr," said Joost Hiltermann, Middle East director of the International Crisis Group. "He's coming out stronger, and Maliki looks like a lame duck."

Security and hospital officials said more than 350 people were killed as the fighting spread from Basrah to parts of the capital and other cities in the southern Shiite heartland.

Fighting goes on

Even after al-Sadr's declaration, residents continued to hear fierce gun exchanges and earth-shuddering explosions in central Basrah and southwest of the city. A street commander for al-Sadr's militia reached by phone in the city said his men would remain in the street.

"Of course we respect his eminence's initiative; however, the other side has to respect it, too," said the fighter, who gave a traditional nickname, Abu Ahmed. "They are the ones who came to either arrest us or kill us unfairly."

The U.S. military said attacks had dropped significantly in other parts of southern Iraq.

In Baghdad, sporadic gunfire and shelling continued into the night.

The military said it killed 25 "armed criminals" in an airstrike after a patrol was ambushed in east Baghdad with roadside bombs, rocket-propelled grenades, small-arms and indirect fire, a military term for rockets or mortar rounds.

It was one of at least six airstrikes in Shiite-dominated parts of the city Sunday that killed about 50 combatants, according to Maj. Mark Cheadle, a U.S. military spokesman.

Two U.S. service members were killed Sunday in roadside bombings, one north of Baghdad and the other in Anbar province, west of the capital, the military said. Before al-Sadr's announcement, one of al-Maliki's top security officials was killed in a mortar attack in Basrah, according to a statement from the prime minister's Islamic Dawa party.

Gunmen also attacked a government television facility in the city, sending the Iraqi guards fleeing and setting fire to several armored vehicles, police and residents said.