- A spokesman for Moqtada al-Sadr today said he had rejected
demands to end his rebellion against the interim Iraqi government in Baghdad.
-
- The cleric was issued an ultimatum to leave the Imam
Ali mosque in Najaf and disband his Mahdi army militia or face a military
assault on one of the holiest buildings in Shia Islam. In return he was
offered a political future in Iraq and an amnesty for his fighters.
-
- "It is very clear that we reject them," Sheikh
Ahmed al-Sheibani, a senior Sadr aide and Mahdi army commander, told reporters
inside the mosque.
-
- Ayad Allawi, the interim prime minister, replied with
"a final call" for Mr Sadr to comply with his demands and put
his acceptance in writing. He said that there would be no negotiations
with any militia.
-
- The ultimatum came as US forces continued their assault
on Sadr City, the poor and mainly Shia suburb of Baghdad which is a stronghold
of Mr Sadr, following a night of fighting.
-
- The Iraqi minister of state, Kasim Daoud, told reporters
that the government had exhausted all peaceful means to end the standoff,
following a failed mission to Najaf by members of the Iraqi national conference
seeking to negotiate a settlement.
-
- Last night there was confusion over whether Mr Sadr had
accepted the offer, despite his refusal to meet the delegation on Tuesday.
His spokesman in Baghdad said Mr Sadr had agreed to the plan, but wanted
to negotiate details of how it would be implemented.
-
- But events in Najaf, where a mortar attack on a police
station killed five people according to Reuters, suggest his militia is
not yet ready to retreat. Police told the agency that three mortar bombs
hit the station in quick succession. It was unclear how many of the victims
were police.
-
- An explosion also hit the heavily fortified Green Zone
in central Baghdad, in what appeared to be another mortar attack, sending
up a plume of grey smoke. Air raids sounded in the enclave, where the Iraqi
interim government offices and the US embassy are heavily guarded from
the insurgents.
-
- Mr Daoud today vowed to liberate the Najaf shrine but
declined to say whether the government would storm it. Just after he spoke,
a loud explosion was heard in central Najaf, the agency said.
-
- The Iraqi defence minister, Hazim al-Shaalan, yesterday
gave Mr Sadr's fighters only a few hours to leave the mosque before the
military taught them "a lesson they will never forget". He said
that only Iraqi troops would enter the mosque itself, with US participation
limited to air cover and securing the roads around the shrine. About 2,000
US marines have surrounded Najaf.
-
- Fighting continued today in Najaf and was echoed by a
US assault on Baghdad's mainly Shia suburb of Sadr City. Dozens of tanks
and Bradley fighting vehicles began their largest push to date into the
impoverished area, a stronghold for Mr Sadr and home to two million people.
-
- The US military said it killed 50 Mahdi army fighters
in yesterday's action in Sadr City, and reported that two US troops had
been killed.
-
- Militants holding an American photojournalist threatened
to kill the hostage if the US did not pull out of Najaf within 48 hours.
In a video aired on Arabic-language news station al-Jazeera, a man reported
to be Micah Garen was seen kneeling before armed men, who described themselves
as members of the Martyrs Brigade group.
-
- Elsewhere in Iraq, two Polish troops were killed and
five were injured early today when their vehicles crashed as they were
trying to escape an ambush.
-
- The troops were on a routine road patrol in the south-central
Iraqi city of Hillah when their convoy came under fire, said Colonel Zdzislaw
Gnatowski, spokesman for the Polish army chief of staff. The deaths brought
the number of Polish troops killed in Iraq to nine.
-
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2004
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- http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1286368,00.html
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