Loyalists of Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr today accused government forces of breaching a cease-fire with continued raids in the southern city of Basra and threatened a "return to conflict."The warning came just a day after Basra and Baghdad felt the full effect of the cease-fire, which Sadr called late Sunday following five days of clashes between Shiite militiamen and Iraqi and U.S. forces. The call to his Mahdi Army fighters to put down their weapons brought relative calm to both cities, where curfews were lifted and rocket, mortar and other attacks dropped.
Basra remained tense, though, and a statement released today by the Sadr Movement office there said neighborhoods known as Sadr strongholds continued to be "subjected to an aggressive campaign of raids, detentions and destruction." It said Iraqi security forces and their supporters, a reference to U.S. and British troops, had destroyed four houses in Jubeila, in central Basra, and detained "tens of families."