Iraq: Al-Sadr accepts Najaf peace plan

Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr accepted a peace plan yesterday to end the fighting in Najaf that would disarm his militia and remove them from their hideout in a holy shrine.

If the agreement is fulfilled – and al-Sadr has made contradictory statements in the past – it would resolve a crisis that had angered many of Iraq’s majority Shiites and threatened to undermine the fledgling interim government of Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, which is already fighting a persistent Sunni insurgency.