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Michael is back in Baghdad, and reports this morning on the latest ceasefire declaration from Muqtada al-Sadr. Although it was touted as a win for Prime Minister Maliki, the real winner is Muqtada -- who has not been forced to disband his militia (thereby keeping his power base) and is positioned to make serious political inroads for the October elections -- and, of course, Iran.
TJ HOLMES:
Well, time to shift the focus to another story
developing in the Middle East. This morning, the
Iraqi government is confirming a cease-fire between
the troops and militia fighters loyal to
anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. For weeks,
they've been battling in Baghdad's Sadr City.
And CNN's Michael Ware is in the Iraqi capital with
the latest for us.
Michael, thank you for being here. Good to see you.
Al-Sadr has maybe a job on his hands. As powerful as
he may be, you know, this Mehdi army of his, not
everybody in that Mehdi army is still operating as
one cohesive unit under his command. Some of them
have branched out.
How can he really rein them in now?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, T.J., this is
going to be a great question. I mean, as you say,
we've seen more than six weeks of fighting in and
around Sadr City, which is part of the capital of
about two million people. And in this fighting
between U.S. and Iraqi forces and the Mehdi army
militia of Muqtada al-Sadr, hundreds and hundreds of
people have died.
So what we now have is statements from the government
spokesman and from the Mehdi army spokesman saying
that an agreement is in place. And it's now hoped
that a cease-fire will take effect sometime tonight
or tomorrow morning, Sunday, local time.
Now, one of the things that we've seen during this
conflict over these six weeks or so is that the
various branches of Muqtada's militia, which as you
say had been fracturing and breaking up, had been
infiltrated by rogue criminal groups at the lower
level, and whose hard liners had been cleaved aside
and recruited by Iran and sent back to Iraq to attack
mainly U.S. forces, have all come together. So the
main body which has remained loyal to Muqtada
throughout has since been receiving assistance from
these other elements, particularly the Special Groups
trained by Iran. And we saw them blend and fuse as
one.
This may have helped consolidate some of the Iranian
power, it may not. But certainly this, in many ways,
might be viewed as something of a victory for Muqtada
because his militia does not have to disband -- T.J.
HOLMES: Does not have to disband. We're not sure if
they will disarm. But you're right, a tricky
situation as always there in Baghdad.
Michael Ware, we always appreciate the updates from
you. We'll be checking in with you again later.
Thanks so much.