Al-Sadr orders fighters to lay down arms

Rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr today ordered his fighters to lay down their arms and leave Najaf and neighbouring Kufa.

The call came after Iraq’s top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Husseini Al-Sistani made a dramatic return to Najaf and swiftly won agreement from Al-Sadr and the government to end three weeks of fighting between his militia and US-Iraqi forces.

Al-Sadr issued the order in a statement to his Mahdi Army militia from his office in Najaf that was also broadcast through loudspeakers at the revered Imam Ali Shrine.

“To all my brothers in Mahdi Army … you should leave Kufa and Najaf without your weapons, along with the peaceful masses.”

Dozens of militants complied with the order, piling Kalashnikov rifles in front of al-Sadr’s office. Thousands of al-Sadr’s militiamen are still believed to be armed in the city, however.

The five-point peace plan calls for Najaf and Kufa to be declared weapons-free cities, for all foreign forces to withdraw from Najaf, for police to be in charge of security, for the government to compensate those harmed by the fighting, and for a census to be taken to prepare for elections expected in the country by January.