BAGHDAD, October 9 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Shiite leader Muqtada Al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army fighters in Baghdad’s Sadr City district agreed on Saturday, October 9, to disarm and stop attacks against US occupation forces under a deal reached with the interim government.

"We will stop all operations starting today against Iraqi and US forces," Sheikh Abdul Zahra Suwaidiy, a senior Sadr aide, was quoted as saying by Agence France Presse (AFP).

"An agreement has been reached to release all prisoners and to stop pursuing and arresting members of the Sadr movement," he said, adding they agreed in return "to end all military operations and to hand over all our heavy- and medium-sized weapons."

Suwaidiy further said the Sadr movement was ready to remove all armed presence in Sadr City and allow Iraqi forces to police the entire district provided the other side sticks to its promises.

Iraqi government sources confirmed the report, saying the disarm process will begin on Monday, October 11.

"Everything is agreed on. Sadr's movement will hand over their weapons," an Iraqi government source told Reuters, adding the government would issue a statement later.

No US Comment

Kareem Al-Bakheet, who heads a grouping of tribal leaders in Sadr City, spoke earlier of promises to halt all military operations against the city.

He said the government has agreed to stop pursuing and arresting Sadr's associates and that "only those fighters charged with crimes would be prosecuted while the majority would be eligible for amnesty."

"We have agreed today that the fighters would hand over their heavy and medium-sized weapons for cash starting Monday," he told AFP.

"Also the US military has undertaken not to attack Sadr City and we in turn have agreed to urge fighters through mosque loudspeakers to stop attacking American and Iraqi forces."

Bakheet said the deal was reached in a meeting attended by Suwaidiy, Iraqi National Security Advisor Qassem Daoud and US army Colonel Abe Abram.

However, there was no immediate comment from the US occupation forces on the deal.

"There is talking, dialogue ... I am neither pessimistic nor optimistic, I'm in the middle," a US military told AFP Friday.

"But... we've seen this before, he's done this before."

Fighting erupted at the beginning of April in Sadr City, long suffering under ousted president Saddam Hussein, and now caught in the crossfire of the Americans and the Mehdi Army.

According to an AFP count, more than 1,000 lives have been lost and the slum's infrastructure wrecked.

Both the government and US military have previously dangled the prospects of investing in the poor district and restoring basic services provided militia lay down their weapons.

On August 27, Sadr ordered his militiamen to disarm and leave Imam Ali Shrine in Najaf, as part of a deal that also called for US forces to withdraw from the holy city.

The deal was brokered by Iraq 's most revered religious leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani who made a dramatic return to Najaf and persuaded Sadr to accept his peace initiative after an intense day in which at least 76 Iraqis were killed in mortar attacks in one day.