Political Snapshot

Al-Sadr threatens to end cease-fire

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(Via Yahoo! News.)

Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr raised the stakes Tuesday in his showdown with government, threatening to end formally a seven-month cease-fire unless authorities stop attacks on his followers in Baghdad.

Formally ending the cease-fire could trigger renewed fighting throughout southern Iraq, nine days after a deal brokered in Iran calmed the region.

But there was no letup in the clashes in the capital Tuesday, as American and Iraqi soldiers stepped up the pressure against Shiite militants in their Sadr City stronghold of northeast Baghdad. U.S. troops fired missiles at three mortar positions, killing 12 militants, the American command said. Iraqi police and hospitals said 14 people were killed and 37 wounded in Sadr City.

Two more U.S. troops were killed in the Baghdad fighting, the U.S. command announced. At least 12 American service members have died in Iraq since Sunday. Also Tuesday, rockets or mortar shells also slammed into the U.S.-protected Green Zone, but the U.S. Embassy said there were no casualties.

The bloodshed served as stark reminders of Iraq’s continuing instability five years after U.S. troops swept into Baghdad and toppled Saddam Hussein’s regime on April 9, 2003. The euphoria of victory was soon dissipated — first by a Sunni insurgency, then Sunni-Shiite slaughter and now battles against Shiite militiamen.

Full story here.