"The Jews are to blame"
Posted on 08/13/2004 8:27:39 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
NAJAF, Iraq (AP) -
0813najaf-truce Aides to Muqtada al-Sadr negotiated with Iraqi officials Friday over a truce to end nine days of fighting in this holy city, saying the radical Shiite cleric was prepared to disarm his followers in exchange for a list of demands including U.S. withdrawal from Najaf and an amnesty for all his fighters.
The talks came as U.S. forces suspended a major offensive against militants in Najaf and al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia appeared to stop most attacks in the city.
Before the pause in the fighting, aides to the cleric said al-Sadr was slightly injured early Friday, suffering shrapnel wounds to the face, chest and shoulder as he met with followers near the revered Imam Ali Shrine, where many of the militants were hiding. But Secretary of State Colin Powell said he could not confirm that al-Sadr was wounded.
U.S. troops and Iraqi officials want to ensure that any new truce would eliminate the flaws of the previous truces, including one that ended a two-month uprising in early June. Al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia repeatedly violated that cease-fire, shooting at police and burying caches of weapons in Najaf's vast cemetery and using the time to regroup, according to U.S. officials and witnesses.
In Washington, Powell said he hoped the insurgent leader would respond "in due course" to charges placed against him by Iraqi authorities. An Iraqi judge has released an arrest warrant for al-Sadr in connection with the death of a moderate Shiite leader, Abdul Maid al-Khoel, in April 2003, two days after the fall of Baghdad. Al-Sadr denies any role in the murder.
Powell denounced al-Sadr and his militia as outlaws and said U.S. forces were "squeezing" Najaf in an effort to end the fighting.
U.S. officials were not involved in Friday's talks, Iraqi officials said. Iraqi National Security Adviser Mouwaffaq al-Rubaie and Defense Minister Hazem Shalan were among the officials negotiating with al-Sadr's aides.
One of the cleric's assistants, Ahmed al-Shaibany, described the talks as "serious and positive, but difficult."
Another, Sheik Ali Smeisim, said al-Sadr wanted a U.S. withdrawal from Najaf, the freeing of all Mahdi Army fighters in detention and an amnesty for the militants, among other demands, in exchange for his disarming his followers and ending the fighting.
Despite the talks, al-Sadr lashed out at the United States, which he said was intent on "occupying the whole world." The fiery sermon was read on his behalf during Friday prayers at the Kufa Mosque near Najaf.
"The presence of occupation in Iraq has made our country an unbearable hell," he said, calling on Iraqis to rebel, "because I will not allow another Saddam-like government again."
Najaf, which had rattled with explosions and gunfire since Aug. 5, was quiet by Friday afternoon. U.S. tanks were seen pulling back from some streets, and no U.S. or Iraqi forces were visible in the city center. The U.S. military said it was maintaining a loose cordon around the Old City, the cemetery and the Imam Ali Shrine.
The Americans had announced the start of a major offensive to rout the insurgents Thursday, and the fighting in the city had threatened to infuriate Iraq's Shiite majority.
"We do not in any way wish to get involved with the mosque," Powell said. "It's a very holy place for all Shia."
Despite the tacit cease-fire, Iraqis held demonstrations Friday in support of al-Sadr in cities across the country. In Baghdad, thousands of protesters, including some police officers, gathered outside the fortified enclave housing the U.S. Embassy and government offices and prayed in the street.
Meanwhile, a series of airstrikes Friday in the volatile Sunni city of Fallujah killed eight people and wounded 16 others, said Abdel Wahab Ahmed from Fallujah hospital.
The U.S. military did not immediately comment, but U.S. forces have repeatedly hit the militant stronghold 40 miles west of Baghdad with airstrikes.
Also Friday, the new U.N. envoy to Iraq arrived in Baghdad to set up the international body's first official presence here since a series of deadly bombings forced it out last year.
Ashraf Jehangir Qazi's primary task is to help Iraqis establish a constitutionally elected government by Dec. 31, 2005. He met Friday with interim President Ghazi al-Yawer and interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi and appealed for a peaceful resolution to the Najaf crisis.
The violence in Najaf has spread to other Shiite communities in Iraq.
In the southern city of Basra, militants briefly kidnapped British journalist James Brandon and threatened to kill him if U.S. troops did not leave Najaf. He was freed after al-Sadr's aides condemned the kidnapping.
Brandon, 23, a freelance reporter, was abducted Thursday night when a group of masked gunmen stormed the Diafa Hotel and pulled him from his room. They beat him, threatened him and pretended they were about to execute him, pointing an unloaded gun at his head and pulling the trigger, he said.
They sent out a video Friday morning showing him scared and bare chested with a bandage around his head, but released him at al-Sadr's local office in the afternoon.
"They just told me they realized I was a journalist and they said I was going to be let go," Brandon told The Associated Press. "I didn't quite believe it until it actually happened."
Before Thursday, the U.S. military has estimated that hundreds of insurgents had been killed in the Najaf fighting since it began last week, but the militants dispute the figure. Six Americans have been killed, along with about 20 Iraqi officers, it said.
The U.S. military said it suspended offensive operations at 7 a.m. Friday because of the truce talks.
"We are allowed to engage the enemy only in self defense and long enough to break contact," said U.S. Maj. Bob Pizzitola. "That was a blanket order for everybody."
"Hopefully the talks will go well and everything will be resolved peacefully," he said.
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Associated Press writer Abdul Hussein al-Obeidi contributed to this report.
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He's not a cleric, but rather a fool and a thug.
When we sending in Jimmy Carter?
"The Jews are to blame"
The only way this negotiation with him should end, is with a half ounce of high speed lead between his bushy eyebrows. Whether that is Iraqi or American lead is still an open question. Iraqi is geopolitically preferable. But either will suffice.
Congressman Billybob
Latest column, "Says the Wuss: Ma, He's Touching Me"
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These negotiations are useful in terms of establishing the authority (military and civil) of Baghdad.
IMO, bad policy. Take the gloves off! Why are we being so "sensitive"? 3 or 4 2000 pounders and the problem is taken care of.
i think we should deport him to his handlers, the Iranians!
Rush commented that Sadr had put himself up for a purple heart from the U.S. military - lol
kill the rat bastards, they tried this once before! dont trust the mothereffer
Kill him ASAP.
Oh of course..anything else???..I guess our troops are getting weary of killing your scumbag 'militia'..would you like to spend this weekend at Disney World??? (which would be great since hurricane Charley just went thru it..)
His death will do better for his nation than any aspect of his continued, miserable, corrupt, irreligious life.
John / Billybob
Right on! Blow the stinking mosque! Once the citizens of Iraq realize that terrorists hiding in mosques = no more mosque, there wont be any more terrorists hiding in mosques.
I'm not there, my @$$ isn't on the line, so I guess it's easy for me to be a keyboard kommando...but I think this sucks.
I'd like to hear what the troops/marines on the ground think of this.
USA leadership WHIMPS out again.
Sounds to me like the negotiations are establishing Sadr's authority rather than that of the interim gov't
Why do we keep giving into these requests? We've got the little prick cornered, he's not going anywhere, and if the ragheads don't like our attacking the mosque then TOUGH SHI'ITE. It's well past time to get this over with.
We've heard this before.
I'm curious if anyone here honestly thinks that this "cleric" will actually disarm all his troops as a result of any negotiations?
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