Iraqi troops test truce in cleric stronghold

By Wisam Mohammed and Aseel Kami

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi troops set up checkpoints and patrolled strategic streets in Moqtada al-Sadr's Baghdad stronghold on Wednesday, testing a truce with the Shi'ite cleric's Mehdi Army militia.

About 10,000 Iraqi soldiers, backed by tanks and U.S. attack helicopters, have been pushing deep into Sadr City since launching an operation on Tuesday to assert government authority on an area previously outside its control.

Should the operation succeed, it would boost Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's efforts to show he is tough on armed groups and capable of dismantling their fiefdoms in Iraq's more lawless parts, rather than relying on U.S. troops to fight them.

A truce 11 days ago between Shi'ite factions largely ended weeks of fighting pitting U.S. and Iraqi forces against the Mehdi Army that had killed hundreds of people.

But in renewed violence just south of the slum in eastern Baghdad, the U.S. military said its troops shot dead 11 militants on Wednesday. Police and several residents said at least some were civilians shot dead by U.S. snipers.

The U.S. military said all those killed were members of so-called "special groups", jargon for rogue units of Sadr's militia accused of receiving funding and training from Iran.

Under the Sadr City truce, the Mehdi Army fighters agreed to lay down their weapons to allow security forces to restore control over the slum.

"The Iraqi army came. Our relations with them are good. There is an understanding between us," said Salman al-Furaiji, the head of Sadr's office in Sadr City, adding that Iraqi soldiers had even held prayers alongside Mehdi Army fighters.

Iraqi security forces have so far met no resistance as they have moved into Sadr City, securing at least three quarters of the sprawling slum.

It is in sharp contrast to the fierce fighting sparked when Iraqi forces entered Mehdi Army strongholds in the southern oil port of Basra in March.

RESTORING ORDER

The clampdown on Shi'ite gunmen in Baghdad coincides with an Iraqi-led offensive against Sunni Islamist al Qaeda in northern Iraq, also seen as a test of the government's credibility on security before Oct 1. provincial elections.

Major-General Mark Hertling, the commander of U.S. forces in northern Iraq, said U.S. and Iraqi troops had inflicted serious damage on al Qaeda in the northern city of Mosul, regarded by the U.S. military as the group's last major urban stronghold.

They had arrested 1,200 people, many of them self-proclaimed senior or mid-level leaders of al Qaeda or other Sunni insurgent groups, he said. Daily attacks in Mosul had fallen from an average of 40 to about six, he said.

"We believe we have significantly affected the terrorist, extremist and criminal organizations in Mosul, Nineveh and other areas of the northern provinces," he said.