I read a lot of news articles but I was just not aware that there was a cease fire declared in Iraq back in August of 2007. I would suspect that a cease fire had a lot more to do with the lower violence than the surge.
This article explained the cease-fire and how it has lowered violence. Muqtada al-Sadr had not decided if he would renew the cease fire at this point.
From the Associated Press:
With deadly attacks against U.S. targets increasing around Baghdad, anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr raised the possibility Wednesday that he may not renew a six-month cease-fire widely credited for helping slash violence.But later he decided to renew the cease-fire.
The cease-fire is due to expire Saturday, and there were fears, especially among minority Sunni Arabs, that the re-emergence of al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia could return Iraq to where it was just a year ago — with sectarian death squads prowling the streets of a country on the brink of civil war.
From the New York Times:
The Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr ordered his Mahdi Army militia on Friday to extend its cease-fire for six more months, bolstering hopes that a recent trend toward sharply lower Iraqi civilian and American military deaths in Baghdad would continue.
