That's it for the tests

That's it for the tests

by Xavier Botero
AID Times
08/18/2004

In a letter issued by al-Sadr's office in Baghdad and read to the Iraqi National Conference, the cleric said he agreed to demands made Tuesday night by a delegation from the conference that he and his forces leave the mosque, disband his Mehdi Army and "enter into the mainstream political process."

Meanwhile, more than 1,000 Iraqi leaders attending the conference in Baghdad picked a 100-person council to advise and oversee the interim government, the caretaker body running Iraq until a transitional national assembly is elected in January.

The Iraqi Defense Ministry said late Wednesday it was surprised to hear of al-Sadr's apparent concession, since the cleric refused to meet with the eight-person delegation sent to Najaf in a bid to resolve the two-week standoff between militia fighters and U.S. troops and Iraqi security forces.