Baghdad ? The U.S. and Iraqi militaries have tentatively agreed to keep a joint base on the edge of Baghdad’s Shiite slum of Sadr City, maintaining an American presence in a strategic area even after the June 30 deadline for U.S. combat troops to pull out of the capital.

The base — Joint Security Station Comanche — is one of about 14 joint facilities that U.S. officials say privately that they would like to keep in flashpoint neighborhoods after the deadline.

Comanche is the most significant because it controls the area where Shiite militants poured rocket fire onto the Green Zone during the last major fighting in the city in 2008. Militants are believed to be trying to regroup in the area.