Coalition Will 'Honor and Respect' Deal with Cleric to End Najaf Standoff

Summary

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NAJAF, Iraq -- The U.S.-run coalition will "honor and respect" a deal to remove Shiite militiamen and American soldiers from Najaf, an Iraqi said Thursday, even though fine points of the agreement fall short of previous U.S. demands to end weeks of fighting.

Members of Iraq's Governing Council traveled to Najaf to help nail down the agreement after radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr offered to withdraw his militia from Najaf and neighboring Kufa in return for a pullback of U.S. troops and suspension of a warrant charging him in the April 2003 murder of a moderate cleric.

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Extract

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Coalition Will 'Honor and Respect' Deal with Cleric to End Najaf Standoff

Nearly two months of clashes between al-Sadr's militia and U.S.- led forces have threatened some of Shia Islam's holiest sites and posed a major challenge to the American occupation.

Also Wednesday, three Marines were killed in Anbar province "whi...

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