Topic: Salah al-Obeidi

While Libyan government forces Friday ratcheted down on ousted leader Moammar Gadhafi's last fighters in Sirte, gunfire broke out in Tripoli, witnesses said.

The Iraqi security arrangement with Washington that calls for a U.S. troop withdrawal by 2011 is a disaster for the country, a Sadrist official said Tuesday.

A spokesman for Moqtada Sadr said the Shiite cleric urged solidarity from all Iraqis ahead of a security deal between the United States and Iraq.

Iraq has reached a cease-fire agreement with Shiite militants to stop attacks in Baghdad's Sadr City, officials said.

High-ranking Iraqi officials returned from Iran with "positive" declarations of support while U.S. officials maintain Tehran is stoking the violence.

A spokesman for Moqtada Sadr's political party said Friday the government of Iraq failed to respond to a parliamentary initiative for a cease-fire

The Shiite faction loyal to Moqtada Sadr announced plans Saturday to drop out of a Shiite coalition in the Iraqi Parliament.