|
Home>News Center>World | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Al-Sadr reportedly accepts peace plan
Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr accepted a peace plan Wednesday to end fighting in Najaf that would disarm his militiamen and remove them from a holy shrine where they are hiding out, according to an al-Sadr spokesman. However, al-Sadr wanted to negotiate how the deal would be implemented.
The cleric's decision came just hours after Iraqi Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan said the government was prepared to raid the revered Imam Ali shrine as early as Wednesday to root out the militants.
The agreement could spell the end of the two-week resurgence of violence in this holy city that enraged many of the country's majority Shiites and posed the greatest test yet for the fledgling government of interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.
The cease-fire deal was presented to al-Sadr's aides in Najaf on Tuesday by an eight-person delegation sent by the Iraqi National Conference, meeting in Baghdad. Al-Sadr himself declined to meet with the mediators. The proposal demanded the cleric's militia drop its arms, withdraw from the shrine and transform itself into a political party in exchange for amnesty.
Sheik Hassan al-Athari, an official at al-Sadr's office in Baghdad, said the cleric had agreed to the plan but wanted the delegation to return to Najaf to negotiate how it would be implemented and to ensure his militants would not be arrested. He said al-Sadr had other, more minor conditions, but did not elaborate.
Al-Sadr has made contradictory statements in the past, and a previous cease-fire with his Mahdi Army militia that ended a spring uprising two months ago collapsed two weeks ago into street battles throughout the city.
Clashes marked by gunfire and explosions continued in Najaf even after the agreement was announced Wednesday. Fighting in Najaf has killed six people and wounded 23 others since Tuesday morning, Hussein Hadi of Najaf General Hospital said Wednesday.
The U.S. military says the fighting in Najaf has killed hundreds of militants, though the militants deny that. Eight U.S. soldiers and at least 40 Iraqi police have been killed as well.
The fighting in Najaf, especially near the shrine, has angered many among the country's majority Shiite population and cast a pall over the conference in Baghdad — intended to project an image of amity and inclusiveness on the road to democracy.
Allawi issued a statement at the conference accusing the militants of having mined the area around the Imam Ali compound.
The gathering of more than 1,000 religious, political and civic leaders was extended a fourth day into Wednesday because of disagreements over how to elect a National Council, which is to act as a watchdog over the interim government until elections in January. Smaller groups argued they would not have enough of a voice.
As the delegates prepared to vote Wednesday afternoon, a mortar round hit the roof of Iraq (news - web sites)'s Foreign Ministry building nearby, causing no damage or injuries, Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told The Associated Press.
The blast shook the convention center where the conference was held inside the heavily fortified Green Zone enclave, which is home to Iraqi government offices and the U.S. Embassy. Zebari said he believed the Green Zone was the target.
Also, a mortar round slammed into a busy market in the northern city of Mosul on Wednesday, killing five civilians and wounding 21, the U.S. military said. Local health officials said the attack killed six and wounded 23 others. Details, including who fired the mortar, were not immediately known.
With the Najaf fighting threatening to overshadow the conference, delegates decided to send a peace mission to Najaf on Tuesday to try to solve the crisis. However, the cleric's refusal to meet with them — his aides said it was too dangerous for him to leave his secret hideout — displeased the delegates.
"If there were anyone sympathizing with him in the past, there will be none from now on because of this stand," delegate Abdul-Halim al-Ruhaimi said earlier Wednesday.
In threatening to raid the shrine, Shaalan said Iraqi forces were fully trained to oust militants from the holy site, and that U.S. forces would not enter the compound. Any American action against the shrine would almost certainly enrage Iraq's Shiite majority.
By Wednesday evening, however, Safiya al-Suhail, an independent Shiite delegate at the conference, said she had received a letter from al-Sadr's Baghdad office saying he was agreeing to the conference's peace plan. "Muqtada al-Sadr has agreed on the conditions set by the National Conference," she said reading the letter to the conference. "We call on the Iraqi government and the National Conference to participate in implementing what is proposed by Muqtada al-Sadr, otherwise everybody will bear the responsibility," the letter continued. In other developments: _Also Wednesday, a mortar round slammed into a busy market in the northern city of Mosul, killing at least six civilians and wounding 23, the U.S. military and hospitals said. _In volatile Anbar Province, a Marine with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force was killed in action Tuesday during "security and stability operations," the military reported. In Basra, one British soldier and one militant were reported killed in fighting. _Several mortar rounds were fired Wednesday at the headquarters of the Polish-led multinational force, and seven people were injured, a military spokesman said. _An Iraqi working for German ZDF television was killed west of the Iraqi capital, the station's chief producer in Baghdad said Wednesday. Mahmoud Hamid Abbas, a local producer for the station, was found dead Sunday near Fallujah, chief producer Jorg Christ said. _Turkey Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said one of two Turkish truck drivers kidnapped over the weekend in Iraq has been rescued and was returning home. Mustafa Koksal was abducted Saturday near Mosul after delivering bottle water to a U.S. base in Baghdad. There was no word on the fate of the other driver. |
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
