Continued dismantling of al-Sader army weapons

The process of dismantling weapons of al-Mahdi army of the Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sader witnessed yesterday great expansion contrary to what had happened on Monday.

An officer in the Iraqi National Guard said I can say that the number of weapons so far handed over exceeded thousands and one truck filled with 25 Klashinkov machineguns was unloaded, while the police started to pay money for citizens for handing over their weapons.

The handing over process of weapons is being made under the sight of the American army whose members took pictures of the citizens who handed over their weapons to the Iraqi police. The American officials expressed cautious optimism over the result of the operation which will end next Friday.

The agreement which was concluded between al- Sader trend and the Iraqi government states the release of all detainees with the exception of those who committed crimes and to take part in the political process, especially the elections which will be carried out by the end of January 2005.