Iraqi peace entreaty fails
2004-08-18 08:14
Najaf - An attempt to launch peace talks with Moqtada Sadr fell through on Tuesday when the firebrand leader of a Shiite militia holding the Imam Ali shrine failed to show up for a meeting with delegates of a national conference who had hoped to open talks.
A Sadr aide said the cleric was not able to enter the shrine area to meet the delegates because the road was insecure due to "aggression by the Americans."
The delegation led by Sadr relative Hussein al-Sadr was instead received by two of Sadr's deputies who later said that "the encounter was positive."
Al-Sadr said that he was assured by Sadr's aides that the cleric does not reject their initiative.
Concern over Najaf's holy sites
"We hope there will be better circumstances to meet with him," he said.
The tense stand-off around one of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines fanned sporadic deadly clashes across Shiite central and southern Iraq, with a United States soldier killed in the capital and a British soldier dead in the main southern city of Basra.
Mortar attacks in the capital killed seven people and wounded 49 - two of them hurt when a projectile landed inside the fortified Green Zone close to where the meeting was underway.
Persistent gunfire, punctuated by mortar blasts, paralysed Najaf's historic Old City as US warplanes screeched overhead and snipers took up position around the Imam Ali mausoleum.
Speaking in Turkey, Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawar urged Sadr to "stop this nonsense" and join the political mainstream.
Ghalib al-Jazairi, Najaf's police chief, has threatened to storm the shrine "and kill each one of them" unless they disarm and leave of their own accord.
Meanwhile, Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and British counterpart Tony Blair issued a cautionary appeal to their US ally George Bush and the new Iraqi government to resolve the conflict in Najaf without damaging its Muslim holy site.
The statement emerged at the end of a relaxed private visit by Blair and his wife Cherie to Berlusconi's holiday mansion here.
Reports at the weekend indicated that hundreds of Iraqi army recruits had switched sides, and gone to Najaf to support Sadr.
Southern crude oil exports from Iraq continued to operate at half rate because of the threat of attack from Shiite militia, an official said.
Recent deaths brought US losses in action since last year's invasion to 703, based on the latest statistics on the Pentagon website.