Sadr City: A test of authority

By Caroline Wyatt
BBC News defence correspondent

Sadr City is a test of the Iraqi government's authority

A fragile peace appears to be holding in Sadr City, the Shia stronghold of the anti-American cleric Moqtada Sadr, despite the killing of 11 people in a gun-battle that followed a roadside bombing in a nearby area of eastern Baghdad.

The Iraqi army went in to Sadr City in their thousands on Tuesday: on foot, in tanks and in armoured humvees, taking up sentry positions on rooftops and at crossroads as soldiers patrolled the streets and began to defuse roadside bombs laid by the Mehdi Army, the Shia militia.

The Iraqi forces' entry into the poor Shia area, home to around two million people, came after a ceasefire between the Iraqigovernment and the Sadrists was agreed on 10 May, coming into effect soon afterwards.

The Shia militiamen agreed to put down their arms - though not to give them up - as long as the patrols were limited to Iraqi security forces, with the US military staying out of Sadr City.

The step towards ending the fighting in Sadr City came as part of our strategy because our people were suffering too much

Moqtada Sadr's spokesman

The deal came after weeks of heavy clashes between the US-backed Iraqi army and the militia, in which
hundreds of people - many of them civilians - died, and up to 2,000 were injured.

Some shops have now re-opened, and civilians on the streets seemed relieved that the ceasefire was holding.

One man told journalists: "We want nothing but