According to the U.S. military, most of the attacks were along the three-mile barrier American soldiers are building on al-Quds Street, which separates the southern Jamilla and Tharwa neighborhoods of Sadr City from northern sectors.

The attacks included rocket propelled grenades, sniping and detonation or planting of improvised explosive devices.

"It doesn't look like a ceasefire to me," said Maj. Kyle Ferger, executive officer of the 1st Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment. "Just last night there were more than a dozen [incidents] along the wall."

The wall, made of 12-foot high concrete slabs, was begun mid-April to block Shiite extremists from infiltrating the two neighborhoods using cross streets along al-Quds to fire rockets at the Green Zone, the seat of the Iraqi government and U.S. military and diplomatic headquarters.

Citizens can still travel between the southern and northern sections of Sadr City, but would have to use three main roads where Iraqi soldiers search vehicles for weapons and munitions.

Despite weeks of daily attacks by members of Sadr's Mahdi Army and so-called special groups – rogue militia influenced by Iran – the wall was 75 percent complete as of Monday and would be finished before the end of the week, Ferger said.

Sadr City, located in the northeastern part of Baghdad, is the stronghold of Sadr, who is a political rival of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Last year he declared a ceasefire with the government, helping to bring new security to the capital, but rescinded it in late March when the Iraqi army took on Shiite gunmen, including Sadr's forces, in the southern port city of Basra amid spiraling lawlessness.

Fighting spread to Sadr City, from where 107mm and 120mm rockets were launched almost daily on the Green Zone. Shiite gunmen in mid-April also overran a number of Iraqi army posts in the southern portion of the district. Those posts were retaken with U.S. help after some Iraqi army units deserted.

On Saturday afternoon, the government announced it had reached an agreement with representatives of Sadr to end the fighting. The militia agreed to surrender its medium and heavy weapons, and the government agreed to open all roads into Sadr City, which the United Nations said is suffering from shortages of food and water.

Iraqi troops would reportedly be allowed to enter the district to search for criminals. Additional details of the ceasefire are reportedly still being worked out in negotiations between the government and representatives of Sadr, who is believed living in Iran.

"It [the new ceasefire] is a lie," Iraqi army Col. Yehea Resol Abdala said on Monday in reference to militants adhering to it. "Just an hour ago they attacked my soldiers.

"We know these people. We've fought them before. If they don't surrender their weapons, they must be squashed," he said.

Ironically, in the same hour in which word Saturday was first received of the ceasefire, improvised explosive devices (IEDs) could be heard from the colonel's Jamilla neighborhood office.

Col. Yehea is commander of the Iraqi army's 3rd Battalion, 42nd Brigade, 11th Division, which operates in the Jamilla area. His unit fought off Mahdi and special group gunmen on April 19 when they launched concerted, coordinated attacks on government positions.

Yehea, like his troops, is a Shiite from Sadr City and said government forces must be in the city or there will be no peace. "The special groups don't take their orders from Sadr," he said. "They take their orders from Iran."

U.S. and Iraqi authorities suspect Iran of having trained some special group elements. Iran is also accused of providing extremists with explosively formed penetrator (EFP) bombs, which pierce armored vehicles.

Iraqi troops around Sadr City conduct joint operations with U.S. troops and also independently. Working with the 3rd Battalion, 42nd Brigade is a special 14-man U.S. Military Transition Team, which acts as a liaison and helps with overcoming the communications, planning and logistics problems the Iraqi army suffers from.

Yehea's battalion, for example, has only four night-vision goggles, something every U.S. soldier in the Sadr City area has.