More details continue to seep out about the 'Truce' between Al Sadr and Maliki. By and large, most of the reports coming from the region seem to reflect a relative calm has fallen over Sadr City. The International Herald Tribune was the most prolific in reporting the situation on the ground, with three separate articles. The LA Times also has an article about the ceasefire. The most surprising detail to emerge was the time frame of the ceasefire, a mere four days...
From the IHT:

Representatives of the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr and lawmakers from Iraq's main Shiite political bloc signed a four-day cease-fire Monday in an effort to end seven weeks of fighting in the neighborhood of Sadr City here.

That came as a bit of a surprise to me. This article in the LA Times points out a bit of what is expected...

Lawmakers loyal to Maliki hope that the deal hammered out Saturday will pave the way for government forces to move into the rest of Sadr City, which remains under the control of the Mahdi Army militia, said Sami Askari, a member of Maliki's Islamic Dawa Party.

The agreement calls for a four-day halt to hostilities, during which the government wants Mahdi Army fighters to help it rid the area of unexploded bombs. Government troops will then be allowed to pursue wanted fighters, provided the troops have a warrant.

Interesting...! It seems Maliki tried to get a head start, tho...(BTW, H/T rw warnick!)

A column of Iraqi armor set out on Sunday to test a new truce in the Sadr City area of Baghdad between the militias and the Iraqi government by venturing north on a major thoroughfare that borders the Shiite enclave.

But the Iraqi forces had barely started to move when they were struck by three roadside bombs, known as improvised explosive devices, or IED's, as the military calls them.

"They promised that there would not be any explosions, that people would show us where the IED's are," said a combat engineer with the Ninth Iraqi Army Division who identified himself as Alaa. "In 10 meters three IED's exploded on us."

Three Iraqi soldiers were wounded by the blasts, including the Iraqi colonel, who strode through a rubble-strewn street with a bandage on his left leg.

Apparently, nobody is really on board with the truce...

Throughout the dealings there has been no official public statement from Sadr about the agreement. Adeeb said some Sadrist politicians were trying to persuade the cleric to issue such a statement.

Haji Abu Mohammed, a Mahdi Army commander in Sadr City, said on Sunday that his men would not stop fighting until ordered to do so by the cleric personally. He said his Baghdad fighters feared a repeat of what happened in Basra last month when, he asserted, Sadrists stopped fighting but the government continued making arrests and raiding their strongholds.

"We do not trust the government and the politicians," he said.

On the streets of Sadr City on Sunday, there were signs that the accord was not in place.

When Lieutenant General Abud Qanbar, the commander of forces in the Baghdad area, and Major General Mizher al-Azawi, who leads the 11th Iraqi Army Division, toured the southern section of Sadr City early Sunday morning, Iraqi soldiers reported that some of the mosques had been blaring messages assailing the accord and urging residents not to allow Iraqi troops in.

Along Al Quds Street there was no break in the fighting. An Iraqi solder was wounded by a sniper near one forward position. A rocket-propelled grenade was fired at a different Iraqi strongpoint that is jointly operated with the Americans. There were loud explosions as American "route clearance" teams found and detonated roadside bombs.

Certainly a tenuous situation, with nobody truly holding up their side of the bargain... We shall see...!