Former Iraqi prisoners walk outside a detention facility in the Baghdad suburb of al-Amiriya after their release from Abu Ghraib prison. Former Iraqi prisoners walk outside a detention facility in the Baghdad suburb of al-Amiriya after their release from Abu Ghraib prison October 7, 2004. The top aide to Iraq's rebel Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr announced on Thursday that Shi'ite militiamen would hand over their weapons as part of a peace initiative in Baghdad's Sadr City and other areas. In a live broadcast on Arab satellite television channel al Arabiya, Ali Smeism said that in return the interim Iraqi government must make assurances that Sadr's followers are not "persecuted" and his aides are freed from U.S. detention. REUTERS/Ammar Awad