Iraqi troops enter Shiite enclave peacefully

BAGHDAD -- Thousands of Iraqi soldiers entered the volatile Sadr City district of eastern Baghdad on Tuesday, taking positions on main roads, rooftops and near hospitals in an attempt to establish government control in the Shiite militia enclave for the first time since Saddam Hussein's ouster.

The large force in tanks and Humvees and on foot met no resistance from radical anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia, whose members in recent weeks have clashed heavily with U.S. and Iraqi troops, Iraqi officials said.

The Iraqi soldiers and police Tuesday passed burned-out shops and buildings pockmarked with bullet holes, signs of years of clashes. But many stores were open, and some residents came out to greet them.

Some Mahdi Army fighters passed out copies of the Quran to the soldiers as a sign of goodwill.

The move, code-named "Operation Peace," is the latest by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to impose government authority in areas controlled by armed groups, and U.S. and Iraqi officials declared the operation a turning point in efforts to restore order in the vast Shiite slum.

Iraqi officials say the first phase of the operation will restore security along the district's main roads.

A second phase, during which Iraqi soldiers are expected to conduct intelligence-driven searches for banned weapons, is expected to start as soon as soldiers can safely navigate the streets of Sadr City.

By late Tuesday, Iraqi troops had pushed deep into the district and set up positions around hospitals and police stations, which the Iraqi government was seeking to bring under its control.

It was a stark contrast to a government offensive against Shiite militias in the southern city of Basra launched in late March. That assault sparked a wave of Mahdi Army violence across the south and in Sadr City.

Fighting in the south was eased by a cease-fire deal in mid-April, brokered by Iran, which has ties to both al-Sadr and the government.

Tuesday's deployment was paved by a separate truce reached last week.

Under the deal, militiamen promise not to attack residential areas or the Green Zone, but they refuse to give up their light weapons. Iraqi forces promised to try to refrain from seeking American help to restore order.

U.S. military officials said they would follow the Iraqis' lead, and no U.S. forces were involved in Tuesday's deployment.

While al-Sadr loyalists say they are prepared to hand over security responsibility in the district to the Iraqi police and army, the cleric has rejected the government's demands to disband his militia.

"I do not think this is the last of the Mahdi Army," said Vali Nasr, an expert on Shiite politics at Tufts University.

"It will lay low until the dust clears."

Sadr City has long been a haven for Shiite militias and a conduit for what U.S. commanders say are Iranian-supplied arms, including explosively formed penetrators, a particularly lethal type of roadside bomb.

Iraqi security forces have removed more than 100 roadside bombs in the district in recent days, said Gen. Qassim Atta, a spokesman for the city's security operations center.

In the past two months, Sadr City also has become a test of the government's ability to find its footing in the slippery terrain of Middle Eastern Shiite politics and internal divisions among Iraq's governing Shiite parties.

Meanwhile, al-Maliki issued a statement Tuesday saying he received an apology from President Bush for the conduct of U.S. soldier who used a Quran, Islam's holy text, for target practice at a shooting range.

The episode, which has triggered condemnation from Iraqi officials, prompted U.S. officials to pull the soldier from Iraq.

U.S. commanders in Iraq have apologized profusely to Iraqi officials.

Information from The Washington Post, The Associated Press, The New York Times and Los Angeles Times is included in this report.