Les Jones

Middle East > Muqtada Al-Sadr Calls Off Violence in Iraq

I'm late in linking to this:

BAGHDAD - The powerful Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr publicly ordered his huge militia Wednesday to "freeze" operations for up to six months.

But U.S. and Iraqi officials expressed skepticism of the fiery, anti-American cleric's intentions and his ability to control the fractured network of fighters who kill in his name.

Al-Sadr issued his order following a day of Shiite-against-Shiite gunfire that killed 49 people during a religious ceremony in the holy city of Karbala. In a statement, he said the freeze would apply to his Mahdi Army militia "without exception in order to have it restructured in a way that would retain for this ideological body its prestige."

It's hard not to see this as a turning point and evidence of the success of General Patreus's surge.