Iraq’s Prime Minister, Nuri al-Maliki, on Wednesday gave Shi’ite militia and other gunmen a 72-hour deadline to surrender their weapons as his forces engaged in fierce street battles in the southern city of Basra for the second day running. The violence in Basra and Baghdad has killed more than 70 people, according to Iraqi officials and news agency reports.
One of Iraqi Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s senior aides ordered his Mehdi Army militiamen on Thursday to observe a ceasefire after they clashed with United States soldiers in the southern city of Kut. Mehdi Army militiamen battled Iraqi and US forces on Tuesday in clashes that police said killed 11 people.