The US military has paid out 1.3 million dollars to residents of Baghdad's restive Shiite Muslim district of Sadr City for turning in thousands of weapons and ammunition rounds, a top general said Saturday.Nearly 4,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles and machine-guns, some 9,000 mortars and rockets, 2,460 grenades rocket-propelled grenade launchers and artillery rounds were turned in during the arms amnesty which ended Friday, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt said.
Kimmitt added that a deal to halt combat patrols by the US-led coalition in the district for five days had collapsed due to continued attacks in the teeming slum, a stronghold of radical cleric Moqtada Sadr, who is waging an uprising.
The agreement was brokered three days ago with tribal leaders, Kimmitt added.
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