Sadr City residents awoke Tuesday to a sight many had not seen in years: Iraqi soldiers deployed in the deepest reaches of the Baghdad district, which is a bastion of militiamen loyal to Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada Sadr.
U.S. and Iraqi officials declared the operation, which took place after negotiations with Sadr’s followers and met no resistance, a turning point in efforts to restore government authority in areas long controlled by armed factions.
For the first time in nearly two months, Ali Hussein Dagher decided it was safe enough to open his car parts store.
But it remains to be seen how Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia responds when the Iraqi troops begin searching for weapons and detaining fighters. U.S. military officials say those being pursued are members of breakaway factions of the militia that have disregarded the cleric’s orders to set aside their guns.
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Although Sadr loyalists say they are prepared to hand over security responsibility in the district to the Iraqi police and army, the cleric has rejected the government’s demands to disband his militia. His followers have also made clear that the truce does not extend to the U.S. military.
“I do not think this is the last of the Mahdi Army,” said Vali Nasr, an expert on Shiite politics at Tufts University. “It will lay low until the dust clears.”
Before dawn Tuesday, columns of Iraqi Humvees and tanks, backed by helicopters, lumbered down streets lined with charred buildings and piles of rubble in a campaign code-named Operation Peace.
U.S. forces did not accompany the Iraqi troops.
Sadr’s representatives in the neighborhood, which is named after the cleric’s revered father who was killed during Saddam Hussein’s regime, welcomed the Iraqi soldiers and presented them copies of the Quran, the Muslim holy book.
“There is no problem with the Iraqi forces’ operations today in Sadr City, as long as these forces respect the rights of civilians,” said Sheik Salah al-Obeidi, a spokesman for Sadr’s movement.
A national crackdown against Shiite militants began far more violently in late March when Iraqi forces launched a hard-fought campaign in the southern oil hub of Basra that later drew in U.S. and British forces.
That operation triggered a backlash by Sadr’s followers in Sadr City and other parts of the capital that led to hundreds of deaths. Sadr’s representatives accused members of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s governing Shiite alliance of using the crackdown to weaken the cleric’s movement before upcoming provincial elections.
The violence in Sadr City declined after representatives of the main Shiite political factions signed a truce May 12.
Sadr’s followers, who waged two major uprisings against U.S. forces in 2004, said they were prepared to allow Iraqi troops to search the district, provided no Americans were involved.
Four days later, Iraqi forces began clearing more than 100 bombs from the outskirts of Sadr City in preparation to move in, set up patrol stations and restore services, said Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, an Iraqi military spokesman. He said the deployment took an hour to complete and met no resistance.
U.S. forces are stationed nearby in case they are needed, Moussawi said. U.S. officers blame most of the fighting since the militia crackdown began in late March on so-called special groups of Mahdi Army fighters, which they say are armed, funded and trained by Iran. The allegation is denied by Tehran.
“I think this is the turning point where we start seeing the Special Group criminals picked up by the Iraqi security forces and a lasting peace for the Iraqi people,” said Lt. Col. Steven Stover, spokesman for U.S. forces in Baghdad. “And it will be because they did it, not us.”