BAGHDAD — Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr on Wednesday ordered his Mahdi Army militia to halt hostilities for six months to restore its credibility in the eyes of Iraqis shaken by a deadly outbreak of Shiite-on-Shiite violence.
The unexpected move by the fiery anti-U.S. Muslim leader, coupled with a vow to cease attacks on American forces in Iraq, may also have been aimed at elevating his standing among his countrymen and their neighbors by attempting to demonstrate that he has the power to make peace or destroy it.
"I direct the Mahdi Army to suspend all its activity for six months, until it is restructured in a way that helps honor the principles for which it was formed," Sadr said in a statement from his stronghold in Najaf.
The announcement came after deadly clashes between Shiite militias this week in the holy city of Karbala in which at least 52 people were killed and 300 injured. The fighting was blamed on Sadr's Mahdi militiamen and the rival Badr Organization, the armed wing of the country's biggest Shiite political force, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council.
Sadr said he did not approve of the bloodshed and was halting militia operations to purge infiltrators and rogue elements engaging in attacks that discredit the populist force.
The militia has splintered into factions and needs to be "rehabilitated," Sadr aide Hazim Araji told Iraqi state television.
The freeze on operations was being ordered "without exception," Araji said.
Sadr's announcement seemed to quickly defuse tension in the capital. Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims forced to evacuate Karbala because of the fighting and a security crackdown flooded into Baghdad in a noisy convoy of overloaded trucks, buses and cattle trailers.
Flags and banners proclaiming allegiance to Sadr fluttered from the teeming, horn-honking vehicles as they threaded checkpoints manned by Mahdi or Badr gunmen, bandoleers of ammunition across their chests and automatic rifles at the ready.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, a Shiite, flew to Karbala to survey the scene of the gun battle and discuss security with local officials. He fired the provincial security minister and ordered an investigation to expose the perpetrators.
Maliki's suggestion that remnants of Saddam Hussein's Sunni Arab-dominated Baath Party were to blame drew scorn in Baghdad as the latest example of his inability to properly identify and eradicate the roots of violence in Iraq.
