A US armoured column has rolled into the centre of Karbala, hours after troops loyal to radical Shia cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr left the area, ending weeks of heavy fighting. Earlier, a high-ranking member of Sadr's Mehdi Army militia said fighters had laid down their arms in the city centre, more than a month after their uprising began.
Officials with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani and anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said Saturday that militiamen and U.S. forces had agreed to stop fighting in Karbala, a holy city where the two adversaries have engaged in intense battles in recent days. The clerics’ representatives of al-Sadr and al-Sistani declined to give their names, and there was no immediate comment from the U.S. military. But witnesses said there were no combatants on the streets of Karbala on Saturday. |