Iraqi forces strike truce with Shiite militia after battles kill at least 80

Daily Star staff

Iraqi forces struck a truce Tuesday with Shiite militia fighters after violent clashes in a town south of Baghdad left at least 80 dead since Monday (...) The deal with the Shiite militias came as a string of sectarian attacks killed at least 10 and a pipeline exploded near Diwaniyya, incinerating at least 36 civilians as they looted fuel. And Iraqi police found the bodies of 24 people who had apparently been tortured and shot before being dumped at two locations in Baghdad, police said. "We reached a settlement with Mehdi Army forces to end the confrontation," town councilor Sheikh Ghanim Abid said, as shops in Diwaniyya reopened and water and electricity supplies were turned back on. Saheb al-Ameri, the head of cleric Moqtada Sadr's office in Najaf, said Diwaniyya's governor met the cleric on Monday to negotiate an end to the battle, which he blamed on the "personal behavior" of some Mehdi Army members...

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