NEW YORK TIMES: SADR CITY CEASEFIRE PUT TO TEST AND FAILS

BAGHDAD — A column of Iraqi armor set out on Sunday to test a new truce in the Sadr City area of Baghdad between the militias and the Iraqi government by venturing north on a major thoroughfare that borders the Shiite enclave.

But the Iraqi forces had barely started to move when they were struck by three roadside bombs, known as improvised explosive devices, or I.E.D.’s, as the military calls them.

By MICHAEL R. GORDON and STEPHEN FARRELL
THE NEW YORK TIMES
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/12/world/middleeast/12sadr.html?partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

As Sadr City and Iraqi government negotiators struggled to complete the cease-fire agreement, the scene was a vivid demonstration that a durable accord in the densely populated neighborhood, where intense fighting has been going on for more than a month, had yet to be achieved.

“They promised that there would not be any explosions, that people would show us where the I.E.D.’s are,” said a combat engineer with the Ninth Iraqi Army Division who identified himself as Colonel Alaa. “In 10 meters three I.E.D.’s exploded on us.”

Three Iraqi soldiers were wounded by the blasts, including the Iraqi colonel, who strode through a rubble-strewn street with a bandage on his left leg.