Shiite Militants Agree to Sadr City Cease-Fire

Shiite militants have agreed to a cease-fire in Baghdad’s Sadr City, said an aide to cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose militia is concentrated there, the AP reports. Sadrists “will stop fighting in Sadr City and will stop displaying arms in public,” the aide said. “In return, the government will stop random raids against al-Sadr followers and open all closed roads that lead to Sadr City.”

But the truce may not end  fighting there, since the Shiite insurgents Nouri al-Maliki's troops launched an offensive against 7 weeks ago may be breakaway groups. An Iraqi commander, meanwhile, announced an offensive against al-Qaeda in Iraq in Mosul, the organization’s last major urban base. “This Iraqi-planned and Iraqi-led series of operations continues to be closely supported by Coalition forces,” a military spokesman noted. (More Iraq stories.)