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Related: AP Version

Voices Of Iraq:

Baghdad, Apr 4, (VOI) – Iraqi Prime Minister ordered an end to arrest raids in all areas to give a chance to gunmen to lay down their arms hours before the Sadrists, or Iraqis loyal to Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr, plans to go on a sit-in after the Friday prayers, according to an Iraqi cabinet statement.

“Maliki instructed to stop detention raids and give a chance to repentant gunmen to lay down their arms in all Iraqi areas,” read the statement received by Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq – (VOI).

“The premier also ordered to have the families that left their residential areas in all provinces due to acts of violence back home and grant financial assistance to the families of martyrs and the wounded in military operations.”

The government’s statement came after a media source in Sadr’s office said “a peaceful sit-in would be staged on Friday to demand cessation of random detentions and escalations against the Sadrists.”

The announcement followed threats by Sadrist MP Bahaa al-Aaraji to enter into “a decisive battle against the government of Nouri al-Maliki if it failed to meet the items brokered by the parliamentary committee set up to carry out Sadr’s initiative to end armed activities.”

“Maliki wants escalations while we see appeasement,” said Aaraji.

Sadr had announced in a statement on Sunday that he would “disown anyone carrying arms and targeting government and service facilities or parties’ offices,” ordering his followers to end all armed activities in Basra and other provinces.

Sadr had asked the government in his statement to “stop random illegal detention raids and release all non-convicted detainees, particularly those belonging to the Sadrist bloc,” also urging “cooperation with the government security agencies.”

The Iraqi interior ministry had said on Monday that some 210 gunmen were killed, 600 others wounded and 155 captured since the beginning of Operation Saulat al-Forsan (Knights’ Assault) in Basra, Iraq’s second largest city and oil hub, last week.

Sadr thanked his followers on Tuesday for their “patience, obedience and defense of the lands and the people,” urging more efforts to fight the “bigger enemy”.

“Thanks are coming from Allah, not me, for the hardships you faced, and for your patience, obedience, cooperation and defense of your lands, people and honor,” Sadr said in his hand-written statement received by VOI.

“Blessed be the mujahideen (holy warriors) who made the occupiers as their enemies and the people as their friends,” he said, calling for mustering efforts to fight the “bigger enemy,” in reference to the U.S. forces in Iraq.

The capital and other southern Iraqi cities, including Basra, 590 km south of Baghdad, were gripped by fierce clashes a week ago between government forces and cleric Sadr’s Mahdi Army militias, hours after Maliki declared Operation Saulat al-Forsan, which he said aimed at eliminating armed groups in the oil-rich port city.

The Sadrists occupy 30 out of a total 275 seats in the Iraqi parliament. The bloc is the fourth largest after the Shiite Unified Iraqi Coalition (UIC), the Kurdistan Coalition (KC) and the Sunni Iraqi Accordance Front (IAF).