US troops have called off an offensive against Iraqi Shia militia in the holy city of Najaf after radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr began pulling his fighters from their strongholds and offered a truce.
US officials, who took no part in talks, welcomed the move brokered by Shia elders as a first step to ending an uprising that has cost hundreds of lives over the past two months.
But they rejected Sadr's demands to be let off a murder charge and insisted he fully disband his Mehdi Army militia.
In violence that was possibly criminal rather than political, gunmen attacked the convoy of a member of the US-appointed Governing Council as she returned from the talks in Najaf. Ms Salama al-Khafaji was unscathed but three bodyguards were wounded and her son died when his car plunged into a river.
A deal with Sadr, a radical young preacher could staunch a major source of trouble for US troops in Iraq as Washington prepares to hand over to an Iraqi interim government on June 30th.
But it remains to be seen if the truce marks the end of Sadr's ambitions or rather a bid to survive and keep his forces intact to influence the new Iraqi politics after the occupation.
Mehdi Army fighters had pulled back from frontline positions and loaded heavy weapons like mortars on to trucks. There were many fewer militiamen on the streets and they were more lightly armed, carrying only rifles rather than grenade launchers.
But it was not clear how many had left town, as Sadr had said those not normally resident in Najaf would do.