- (Agencies) -- A delegation of leading Iraqis flew to
the embattled holy city of Najaf today to convey a peace proposal to Shia
cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose militia has been battling US and Iraqi troops
for control of the city.
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- The delegation from the Iraqi national conference in
Baghdad flew out on US military helicopters, after earlier delaying the
mission over security concerns.
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- The peace proposal demanded that Mr Sadr's Mahdi army
put down their arms and join Iraq's political process in exchange for amnesty.
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- "This delegation is not negotiating, it is conveying
the proposal," said delegation head Hussein al-Sadr, a distant relative
of the cleric. "I hope this delegation will be able to solve one of
the big problems that hit our country."
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- The mission comes on another bloody day for Baghdad:
insurgents fired a shell at a crowded street in centre of the city today,
killing at least seven people, including two children.
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- The blast destroyed seven cars and left pools of blood
on the sidewalks of Rasheed Street in the heart of the Iraqi capital. At
least 42 people were wounded in the attack.
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- "The place was very crowded, it is a commercial
area ... casualties are being taken to hospital now," an interior
ministry official said.
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- The Iraqi national conference meeting in the city's fortified
"green zone" was due to elect a 100-member national assembly
today. The assembly would oversee the interim government until January
elections. However, the fighting in Najaf has dominated the three-day gathering
of 1,300 delegates.
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- Threats from insurgents had earlier delayed the peace
delegation to Najaf, where fighting between US forces and the Mahdi army
entered its 13th day.
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- Some delegates said there was also a dispute over whether
the vote to select the assembly - which will oversee the interim Iraqi
government until January elections - should take place first on Tuesday
or when the team returns.
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- The delegation will try to give Mr Sadr a letter, urging
him to leave the shrine where he is holed up with his fighters and turn
his Mehdi army militia into a political party.
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- Mr Hamza said that both he and Mr Sadr agreed on the
need "to spare the blood of Iraqis".
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- The interim prime minister, Ayad Allawi, needs to quell
a Shia rebellion across eight cities in order to regain his authority.
However, he is walking a dangerous tightrope, with passions at boiling
point over US troops fighting near holy sites such as the Imam Ali mosque
in Najaf.
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- Tanks and armoured vehicles were this morning seen taking
positions around the old city, where hundreds of Mahdi army fighters are
stationed, as a prelude to pitched battles. A Reuters photographer suffered
leg wounds while covering the fighting.
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- Broadening their uprising from the urban battlefield,
the Mahdi army yesterday set an oil well in southern Iraq on fire, the
government said. The news drove world oil prices higher.
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2004
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- http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1284809,00.html
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