The two-week-long siege of Muqtada al-Sadr and his fighters in one of Shia Islam's holiest shrines may be coming to an end. On August 18th, in a surprise message reportedly signed by the fiery preacher himself, Mr Sadr told the National Conference, post-war Iraq's first big countrywide deliberative assembly, that he would accept its terms for peace. An aide said that Mr Sadr would leave the Imam Ali mosque, where he is holed up, and disarm his "Mahdi Army", but only if the American and Iraqi forces surrounding him first call a truce and pull back.
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