baghdad -- Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr and his chief rival, Abdelaziz Hakim, reached a truce Saturday to end bloodshed between their loyalists that has killed scores of Iraqis and raised fears of a new front in the Iraq war.
Officials of Hakim's Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council said the deal was hammered out during a 4 1/2 -hour meeting between the Shiite Muslim leaders, whose militias have been vying for control of oil-rich southern Iraq. Both sides said they would reveal details today.
Britain is decreasing its troop strength in the overwhelmingly Shiite south, and there are concerns that in the absence of foreign forces, all-out war will erupt between Sadr's Mahdi Army and the Badr Organization militia of Hakim's party. More than 50 Iraqis, most of them Shiite pilgrims, died in August in militia clashes in the southern city of Karbala.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown last week announced plans to pull 1,000 of the 5,500 British troops still in Iraq out of their base in Basra by Christmas. The southern province is the last under British control. Brown, facing pressure at home to end his country's involvement in the war, is expected to announce further withdrawals soon and a transfer of Basra to Iraqi leaders.
An announcement on the truce, broadcast on the satellite television channel controlled by the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, said it would include the forming of committees in each province to try to work out problems before they explode in violence.
Vali Nasr, an expert on Shiite politics at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the pact was significant. "The two have the largest militias, and the most extensive political networks and bases of support. The deal, if it sticks, can bring stability to southern Iraq," he said.
"These are the most influential of the parties, so we hope this will have a positive reflection on the ground," said Dhiauddin Fayadh, a Shiite lawmaker and a member of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council.
A spokesman for Sadr said the deal was aimed at calming tensions on the streets, but it would have no effect on the cleric's decision to leave the Shiite political alliance of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki in parliament. Sadr pulled his 30 lawmakers from the bloc last month, leaving it with only 83 seats in the 275-member parliament.
Sadr has been a fierce opponent of the U.S. presence in Iraq and has criticized Maliki for not demanding the withdrawal of American forces.
