The movement of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr agreed with the Iraqi government to a ceasefire in Baghdad's eastern neighborhood of Sadr City, a Sadr spokesman said on Saturday."Hudna time!"
"We have made an agreement between the Sadr movement and the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to cease fire," said Shiekh Salah al-Obiedi, spokesman of Sadr office in the Holy City of Najaf™, 160 km south of Baghdad.
The agreement would include a ceasefire by Sadr followers, ending of all arms appearances in public and opening all the blocked entrances of Sadr City neighborhoods, Obiedi said.
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The Iraqi government has no immediate comment about the deal.
Over 900 people were killed in Sadr City during more than month-long battles between Mahdi Army militia and U.S.-backed Iraqi security forces, when a U.S. and Iraqi military crackdown sparked an uprising by Sadr's Mahdi Army.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki warned that Sadr must disband his Mahdi Army militia or will be barred from taking part in the provincial elections slated for October.
Many Sadrists view Maliki's crackdown as a means to eliminate his Shiite rivals and to facilitate the political benchmarks set by the U.S. administration before the provincial elections.