Baghdad - The Shiite Sadr Bloc of radical cleric Moqtada
al-Sadr is committed to a ceasefire deal with the Iraqi government
but is watching developments on the ground carefully, Fatah al-
Sheikh, a senior member from the bloc, said Wednesday.
Al-Sheikh told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that the al-Sadr Bloc
hoped the authorities would honour their obligations and avoid a
repeat of what their actions in Basra where, he said, human rights
abuses were committed and random raids carried out.
The al-Sadr Bloc and the United Iraqi Alliance, the main power in
the ruling coalition, signed a ceasefire deal Saturday to end the
fighting between al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia and Iraqi and US troops
in its east Baghdad's stronghold.
'Mahdi Army will continue to exist as disbanding it is not
explicitly stated in the agreement between the United Iraqi Alliance
and al-Sadr Bloc,' al-Sheikh said.
On Tuesday, al-Sadr ordered his followers to abide by the truce
if the government honoured its obligations.
But the truce has been breached since it was sealed with sporadic
bouts of fighting and US shelling of positions of militiamen in Sadr
City and other Shiite-dominated areas.
On Tuesday, a blaze broke out following heavy clashes between
militiamen and Iraqi government troops in Jamila, an industrial area
in Sadr City, the Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency reported.
Elsewhere, Iraq's air force is taking part for the first time
in a military operation, the spokesman for the Ministry of Defence
told VOI.
The air force has managed in the past 24 hours to provide air
surveillance of areas in Nineveh province, where a large-scale
offensive is being launched against militants of the al-Qaeda
terrorist network, Muhammad al-Askari said.
'The reconnaissance mission is the first of its kind for the Iraqi
air force,' al-Askari said.
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