NYT, pg1: Talks to Disarm Shiites Collapse

[DeepModem Mom]

INSURGENTS
Talks to Disarm Shiites Collapse
By DEXTER FILKINS and ERIK ECKHOLM

Published: September 1, 2004


BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 31 - Talks to disarm hundreds of insurgents in the roiling Sadr City ghetto in Baghdad collapsed Tuesday, after a tentative peace pact was abruptly canceled by Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.

Leaders of the Mahdi Army, the rebel force led by the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, and two well-placed Iraqi sources said an agreement had been reached late Monday that called for the disarming of the rebel force and a halt in American military operations in Sadr City.

Mahdi Army commanders and other Iraqi sources said Tuesday that Dr. Allawi backed out of the agreement on Tuesday morning.

The failure of negotiations raised the prospect of more violence from Mr. Sadr's Shiite insurgency, meaning the Iraqi government may not be able to direct its full political and military resources to quelling the continuing Sunni insurgency in other parts of the country....

***

(Yusef al-Nasiri, the leader of the Mahdi Army in Sadr City) said he had been told by one of the government's negotiators, Qassim Daoud, the minister of state, that Dr. Allawi had objected to the restrictions placed on Americans soldiers operating in the area. Under the agreement, the Americans would be limited to performing reconstruction work; anything more aggressive than that would require the permission of the Iraqi government....


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/01/international/middleeast/01shiite.html

[acmavm]

1. Like we're supposed to be surprised?

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