Sadr defiant despite threat
19/08/2004 15:27  - (SA)  

Want to know more? Answerit can help.

Najaf blast: 8 dead 'We want to end the crisis' Sadr: I will disarm forces Iraq: 'Slightly over 50' dead Sadr agrees to peace demands Iraqi peace entreaty fails

Najaf - Moqtada Sadr's followers remained defiant on Thursday as fighting intensified in Najaf after an Iraqi government minister threatened an offensive against his forces "within hours."

As loud explosions and gunfire echoed through the historic heart of the Shiite holy city, an aide to Sadr said his mehdi army would be happy to die as martyrs.

Eight people were killed and 30 wounded when mortar bombs smashed into the provincial police headquarters in Najaf, hospital and official sources said.

Government officials earlier voiced increasing impatience with Sadr, who was said on Wednesday to have accepted the conditions laid down by mediators from a national conference meeting in Baghdad, including disarming his militia.

"Moqtada Sadr must promise publicly not to resort to violence in the future and that the mehdi army is to be dissolved," minister of state Kassem Daoud said.

The fiery cleric must also submit names of all people tried by his religious courts and release all detainees, including Iraqi police, soldiers and national guardsmen, "otherwise the coming hours will be decisive", he added.

"We have been preparing for a military offensive for five days to put an end to this crisis," the minister said.

But Sadr aide Ali Smeisim told reporters that Daoud "is not part of the negotiations."

"We are negotiating with the committee of the national conference and we are ready to meet them again in Najaf to implement the conditions and not to negotiate."

Confirming on Wednesday that the cleric had "accepted all the conditions extended to him," aide Sheikh Ahmed al-Shaibani however insisted on a ceasefire for the steps to be implemented.

But there was little evidence of that on the ground on Thursday as Sadr's troops fired at US tanks parked just 200m away from the mausoleum, effectively trapping Sadr's men in one of the holiest shrines in Shiite Islam.

"We've had these kind of tricks before and the Iraqi people will not be deceived... If he says he will leave, he should just leave," interior ministry spokesperson Sabah Kadhim told AFP.

Tired and angry residents have compared Sadr to deposed dictator Saddam Hussein, for holding them hostage to fortune and engulfing their pilgrimage city in deadly violence.

- AFP

What is this? Yahoo Digg Del.icio.us Facebook Brought to you by OUTsurance Car Insurance
	News24 Headlines on your Facebook profile		News24 on mobile