Sadr City Iraq

Mahdi Army militiamen brandished Kalashnikovs and rocket-propelled-grenade launchers at checkpoints in the Sadr City neighborhood Wednesday, a sight harking back to the days after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq when armed followers of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr regularly defended the streets. This time, though, they are flexing their muscle against the Shiite-led Iraqi government, rather than providing protection against Sunni Muslim extremists. The 2.

In a stucco compound at the center of the Sadr City neighborhood here, a follower of radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr gleefully handed out candies and toffees to visitors Monday. "Have a chocolate," the thin, bearded man said. "This is for our victory over [Prime Minister Nouri] Maliki."

An unfamiliar sound echoed Saturday on the streets of Sadr City, where gunshots and bomb blasts had rung out for weeks: cars honking their horns. Traffic clogged the Baghdad district's Mudafer Square, which in recent days had been devoid of life except for Iraqi and American Humvees, rooftop snipers and a giant mural of Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr's late father staring down from a burned-out building.

In the glow of a full moon, a U.S. military convoy inched toward a strategic road in Sadr City. The goal: to add to a wall being built to carve out a haven in the Shiite Muslim militia stronghold. But the mission ended before it began. Machine gun fire blasted out from the third floor of a building along the route. A Bradley fighting vehicle fired back, sending a thunderous roar through the neighborhood of middle-class homes and businesses. Then, the lead tank hit a roadside bomb.

Representatives of Iraq's main Shiite Muslim factions signed a deal Monday clearing the way for Iraqi soldiers to operate throughout Sadr City, a vast Baghdad slum that is largely under the control of militiamen loyal to firebrand cleric Muqtada Sadr. The signatures put an official seal to a truce brokered over the weekend by Sadr's political representatives and members of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's governing alliance.

Iraqi Col. Qassim Abdul-Wahab appeared relaxed as he cruised down rutted streets in an unarmored pickup truck, Arabic pop tunes pouring from the speakers and the air conditioner cranked up as high as it would go. For the first time since U.S.-led forces invaded the country in March 2003, Iraqi soldiers blanket Sadr City, the heavily populated Baghdad district that is the bastion of firebrand Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr and his Mahdi Army militia.

U.S. and Iraqi forces have moved aggressively in the last week to combat Sunni Arab insurgents in neighborhoods across the capital and to establish a stronger presence in religiously mixed districts long plagued by sectarian violence. But as the new security crackdown enters a second week, they face their most sensitive challenge: whether, when and how to move into the Shiite-dominated slum of Sadr City, stronghold of the Al Mahdi militia.

Just after 8 a.m. Sunday, U.S. and Iraqi troops tapped on Saif Mirwan's front gate in the Shiite Muslim stronghold of Sadr City and politely asked to search his house. They looked in each room, asked how his family was doing, checked out the pigeons he keeps on his roof and then left with handshakes and a thank you. With that, Sadr City, whose fearsome reputation and political clout had rendered it largely off-limits to U.S.

The mayor of the Shiite stronghold of Sadr City narrowly escaped an assassination attempt Thursday, less than two weeks after negotiations he led with U.S. military officials cleared the way for American troops to move into the area. Also Thursday, four American soldiers died when two roadside bombs exploded in quick succession in east Baghdad, the U.S. military said. It also announced the death of a Marine on Wednesday in the western province of Al Anbar.

Residents of the Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City on Friday showed signs of growing resentment toward the presence of U.S. troops in the area, chanting "No occupation!" and "No America!" in a march demanding the removal of a U.S. base there. The protest came as U.S. military officials cited Sadr City, stronghold of anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada Sadr, as a success story in a month-old effort to improve security in Baghdad.