Word: iraqi
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...curfew in all but a few militia strongholds, signaling that fears of truly disastrous violence had begun to subside. But at least some militants either had not yet received or were choosing to ignore Sadr's directive. Monday morning rockets or mortars once again slammed into the U.S. and Iraqi headquarters in central Baghdad. In what has become a routine since such attacks began last weekend, American soldiers and contractors caught outdoors sought cover in concrete bunkers...
Sources in Basra tell TIME that there has been a large-scale retreat of the Mahdi Army in the oil-rich Iraqi port city because of low morale and because ammunition is low due to the closure of the Iranian border. TIME has not yet been able to confirm those reports with U.S., Mahdi Army or Iraqi government authorities...
...fighting and the rhetoric had ramped up Saturday. As U.S. warplanes targeted militiamen in Basra, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said that the government's enemies in the south were "worse than al-Qaeda." A Sadrist spokesman then retorted that fighters should not surrender their weapons except to a government committed to ejecting U.S. troops from Iraq. But on Sunday, Sadr, in a statement released through his office in the holy city of Najaf, called on his followers to stop making "armed appearances." He said he hoped to avoid more bloodshed. This week's violence has claimed hundreds...
...television, an Iraqi government spokesman hailed the announcement as a "positive statement," but it was not yet clear Sunday evening if militants would stand down. Throughout the afternoon and into the evening rockets or mortars continued to sail into the heavily fortified Baghdad headquarters of the U.S. embassy and the Iraqi government. A spokesman for the British military said that Iraqi requests for U.S. and British support in Basra had subsided but confirmed that more U.S. air strikes had been launched on Sunday...
...uncertainty, Sadr aide Hazem al-Araji said that, after negotiating with the Iraqi government, an agreement had been reached that militants would not disarm. "Jaish al Mahdi [the Mahdi Army] will not surrender its weapons to the state," he said, "because they are weapons of national resistance...