In the end, Moqtada al-Sadr's forces in Basra were beaten with just a few stern words from the British military and the overwhelming rejection of the cleric's violent tactics by residents of this city. Jack Fairweather in Basra reports
Three attempted uprisings in Basra in the past two months have left his army a spent force.
The final call to arms came on Tuesday night. Al-Sadr's Mahdi army hijacked an ambulance and drove through the city ordering the militia to ready themselves and telling residents not to go work.
Sheikh Abdul Settar al-Behadili, al-Sadr's deputy in the south, declared himself ready to die a martyr. "I will only be happy when my blood has been spilled on the streets," he said.
The next day saw normal traffic on the streets and no armed uprising.
Sheikh al-Behadili himself has been on the run for the past two weeks after tribal leaders called him a "menace to society". A British military spokesman said, "Sadr's militia are just a bunch of thugs. We've always known that the majority of people in Basra did not support him."
Much of the credit for al-Sadr's taming in Basra lies with the British "softly, softly" approach tempered with a touch of steel.
Unlike the American assaults on Najaf and Karbala, the British military has always maintained direct lines of communication open with al-Sadr's top officials in the south - made easier by the relative calm in the city.
When the Mahdi army captured the governor's office in April, talks were begun at once to resolve the standoff. The negotiations faltered after al-Sadr's men called for a complete withdrawal of coalition forces.
The British army gave the Mahdi army an hour to leave the building. Within half an hour the premises were deserted.
The people of Basra have been less than impressed with how the Mahdi army has been allowed to flourish in the south since Saddam's fall. The militia is widely seen as a group of criminals masquerading under Islamic piety. Shootings, kidnappings and house-to-house searches have been commonplace, and many fear that even with the end of fighting between the group and the coalition, they will continue to terrorise the city.
"They aren't religious men," said one city official, who wished to remain anonymous. "They are opportunists seeking power in any way." Al-Sadr himself commands little love. Aggressive, political and power-hungry, the youthful cleric is regarded with a degree of fear by moderate Shias.
"He's an upstart, a very dangerous upstart," said the spokesman for Fad'Allah, one Shia political party.
Al-Sadr made his name last summer by preaching resistance to the coalition.