Sadr City Rejoices Over Moves by Maliki

BAGHDAD — In a stucco compound at the center of the Sadr City neighborhood here, a follower of a radical Shiite Muslim cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr, gleefully handed out candies and toffee to visitors yesterday.

"Have a chocolate," the thin, bearded man said. "This is for our victory" over Prime Minister al-Maliki.

Nearly a week after Mr. Maliki's security forces began fighting what amounted to a draw with Mr. Sadr's Mahdi Army militia on the streets of the southern port of Basra and in the nation's capital, armed militia members had melted into the background yesterday both in Basra and the cleric's longtime Baghdad stronghold.

But the signs of battle remained: burned tires, charred pavements, bomb and rocket craters on the streets of the Shiite slum, as hundreds walked and shopped under murals and ads festooned with the anti-American cleric's image.

Loudspeakers, meanwhile, blared praise for Mr. Sadr, who supporters say is stronger than ever after ordering his followers to lay down their weapons Sunday while, in turn, demanding that the government stop its attacks and release his detained followers.

Iraqi security sources announced that 116 people had been killed in Sadr City and another 250 in Basra since the turmoil erupted Tuesday.

The rise in bloodshed raised the Iraqi death toll for March to 1,079 people, according to the health and interior ministries. March was the worst month for Iraqi fatalities since August, when 1,860 people were killed.

The U.S. army also announced the deaths of two American troops, one of whom had been wounded in a bomb blast March 23, the other killed by a bomb yesterday in northeastern Baghdad. The resilience of the Mahdi Army appears to have surprised Mr. Maliki, who said his offensive was meant to crush lawless elements in Basra.

Top Iraqi commanders acknowledged yesterday that they also had been taken aback.

"The presence of the armed men [in the street] made this operation become bigger than it was," Major General Abdul Aziz, an operations commander for Iraq's defense ministry, said.