US general in Baghdad says bringing basic services to Sadr City to weaken Sadr and his militia can work this time.ByHoward LaFranchi| Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitorfrom the April 28, 2008 edition

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0428/p01s03-wome.html

Baghdad - Maj. Gen. Jeffery Hammond, US commander in Baghdad, patted the hand of the Iraqi general who oversees government forces in Sadr City. He smiled, but delivered a firm message.

"Tell the mayor - the mayor of Baghdad, the big mayor - tell him we'll be here tomorrow morning at 9 o'clock, and we'll be very disappointed if he's not here. The prime minister needs this to happen," he said during a Friday trip to Sadr City. "We gotta get going."

General Hammond is pushing for services - trash pickup, medical care, water, electricity - for a southern slice of the volatile district. It's part of a US plan to win Iraqis away from Moqtada al-Sadr's sway. And they see a window of opportunity as fighting in Mr. Sadr's Baghdad stronghold shows signs of quieting.

While sporadic fighting continued Sunday, clashes with the Mahdi Army calmed after Sadr issued a statement Friday calling for the "patience" of his followers and for an end to bloodshed among Iraqis. He stepped back from his earlier threat of "open war until liberation," saying it was only directed at Iraq's "occupiers."

In the assault on the Shiite enclave, the Americans' original goal was to push Mahdi Army gunmen out of the southernmost section of Sadr City, from where a barrage of rockets and mortars was launched on the Green Zone, home of US and Iraqi offices. The firings from this part of the district have mostly stopped.

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Added to that is Maliki's commitment to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during her recent visit to Baghdad that the government would spend $300 million to improve living conditions in the Shiite neighborhood.

But perhaps the best sign, some US military officials say, is evidence that local residents are ready for things to change in the neighborhood.

"The people tell us they are sick of the fighting, they want a positive life," says Lt. Col. Frank Curtis, commander of the 4th Infantry Division's 302nd Civil Affairs Battalion.

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 "I didn't think I'd find myself doing this," Hammond says. "But we need the people to see they have security forces that are making their neighborhoods safe, and to see they have a government that can deliver a better quality of life."