A LIEUTENANT of Iraq's most feared militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was captured a few days ago in Mosul.

Iraqi officials struggled today to clear up confusion over whether the most wanted member of Saddam Hussein’s ousted dictatorship had been captured in a shoot-out north of Baghdad.

Iraqi authorities were conducting DNA tests to confirm the identity of Saddam Hussein’s former second-in-command, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, captured in northern Iraq today.

Iraq’s top Shiite cleric is on his way to Najaf today, armed with a new peace initiative and a call for Iraqis to march on the holy city, after he unexpectedly returned home from Britain.

Militants kidnapped the brother-in-law of Iraqi Defence Minister Hazem Shaalan and demanded he end all military operations in the holy city of Najaf, Al-Jazeera television reported today.

Najaf’s Shiite uprising appeared to be weakening today as Iraqi forces moved to within 200 yards of the revered Imam Ali Shrine.

REBEL forces inside the Imam Ali Shrine in Najaf were warned yesterday they have “hours to surrender” or face attack from US and Iraqi forces.

US and Iraqi forces battled militants in Najaf today and Iraqi National Guardsmen advanced to within 200 yards of the holy city’s Imam Ali Shrine compound, where insurgents loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr have been holed up for weeks.

Sporadic gunfire and explosions boomed through Najaf today despite a peace deal in which radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr agreed to disarm his militiamen and pull them out of a revered Shiite shrine where they have taken refuge.

Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr accepted a peace plan yesterday to end the fighting in Najaf that would disarm his militia and remove them from their hideout in a holy shrine.

REBEL Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr backed down last night in the face of a looming Iraqi army assault on a holy shrine in Najaf where his gunmen have been holding out.

Rebel Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr appeared to back down today and accepted a peace plan just as government forces were preparing to storm a holy shrine in Najaf where his gunmen are holed up.

Iraqi govrnment forces could raid Najaf’s holy Imam Ali Shrine today in a final push to root out the Shiite militants hiding out there, said Defence Minister Hazem Shaalan.

Iraqi interim President Ghazi al-Yawer threatened today to use a “very sharp sword” to fight insurgents and anyone else threatening the security of the country.

THE US military struck a suspected terror network for the third time in a week in Iraq yesterday.

The US military struck a suspected terror network for a third time in a week in Iraq today, firing precision weapons at an alleged safehouse of the group believed behind coordinated attacks that killed more than 100 people this week.