Iraqi lawmakers hail security improvements

BAGHDAD, Aug. 28 (UPI) -- Top Shiite lawmakers convened in Baghdad Thursday with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to discuss political developments as security in the city improves.

Influential Shiite leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim with the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council chaired the meeting of the Shiite United Iraqi Coalition at his Baghdad office to discuss political and security matters, Voices of Iraq said.

The UIC is the largest bloc in the Iraqi Parliament, with 83 seats in the 275-member body.

Meanwhile, Baghdad military spokesman Gen. Qassim Atta said violence in Baghdad was down 89 percent from the previous years.

"Military operations throughout Baghdad have fallen to their lowest level in two years," he said.

Several military officials credit the decline in violence to a May cease-fire declared by the Mehdi Army of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr following a crackdown in the Baghdad slum of Sadr City.

Sadr Thursday ordered his estimated 60,000-strong militia to stand down indefinitely, focusing the group's activity instead on social services.

Sadr is believed to be in Iran pursuing his clerical studies.