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Baghdad: Anti-US cleric Moqtada Al Sadr may let a six-month ceasefire expire as soon as Saturday, a move that could send his Shiite militia fighters back out on the streets and jeopardize recent security gains that have led to a sharp decline in violence.
Three American troops were killed by a roadside bomb on Tuesday night in northwestern Baghdad, the US military said. Their names were not released.
Al Sadr's Shiite Mahdi Army is among the most powerful militias in Iraq, and the ceasefire he ordered last August has been credited with helping reduce violence around Iraq by 60 per cent or more in the past six months.
Shaikh Salah Al Obeidi, a spokesman for Al Sadr in Najaf, said if the cleric failed to issue a statement by Saturday saying that the ceasefire was extended, "then that means the freeze is over".
On an internet site representing Al Sadr, Al Obeidi said Al Sadr "either will announce the extension or will stay silent and not announce anything. If he will stay silent that means that the freeze is over".
Al Obeidi said message "has been conveyed to all Mahdi Army members nationwide".
Rear Admiral Gregory Smith, a military spokesman, said in an e-mailed statement that the ceasefire declared by Al Sadr's last August was good for the Iraqi people.
"Al Sadr's ceasefire has been helpful in reducing violence and has led to improved security in Iraq. We would welcome the extension of the ceasefire as a positive step," he said, using an honorific reserved for senior clerics.
While the United States has welcomed the cease-fire, it also has insisted on continuing to stage raids against what it calls Iranian-backed breakaway factions of the Mahdi Army militia - moved that have angered the cleric's followers.
Influential members of Al Sadr's movement had said they had urged the cleric to call off the ceasefire, which was initially set to expire at the end of the month.
Al Sadr's followers have claimed the US-Iraqi raids, particularly in the southern Shiite cities of Diwaniyah, Basra and Karbala, are a pretext to crack down on the wider movement, which has pulled its support for the Washington-backed government.
No one has claimed responsibility for Tuesday's rocket attack, the second in as many days, but in both cases the explosives apparently were launched from Shiite militia strongholds in the capital, underscoring the fragility of the truce.
Smith said at a news conference yesterday that the rationale behind the timing of the attacks was unclear.
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