Diplomat assassination casts shadow on city mediation bid

Gunmen assassinated an Iranian diplomat in Baghdad just as Iran, with tacit US approval, attempted to mediate with radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr defying American forces in the southern Iraqi city of Najaf.

The killing of diplomat Khalil Naimi, shot in the head by unknown gunmen while he drove near his embassy, cast a shadow over the unusual negotiating mission to Najaf by the envoy from neighbouring Iran, which fought an eight-year war with Iraq in the 1980s and does not have diplomatic relations with Washington.

Iranian Embassy officials were investigating whether there was a link between the assassination and the envoy’s visit. Naimi was not a member of the Iranian negotiating team.

Three Japanese hostages in Iraq were released yesterday, ending a weeklong crisis that divided Japanese public opinion and tested the government’s commitment to stand by the US-led coalition.

But it was only a partial victory for Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who rejected a demand by the kidnappers to pull Japanese troops out of Iraq.

News that the two Japanese aid workers and a photojournalist had been freed unharmed at a mosque in Baghdad came less than 24 hours after authorities received a report that two other Japanese civilians had been kidnapped.

In Najaf, the Iranian effort to mediate with al-Sadr was arranged by Britain and appeared to have the approval of the United States, reflecting an eagerness to find a solution that would avert a US assault on Najaf – the holiest Shiite city – aimed at capturing al-Sadr.

But it was not clear whether al-Sadr would agree to meet with Iranian envoy Hossein Sadeghi.

Al-Sadr was accepting mediation only by an Iraqi political party picked by Iraq’s top clerics, said al-Sadr aide Sheik Qays al-Khaz’ali.

Shiite Governing Council member Ibrahim al-Jaafari said he saw “flexibility from al-Sadr’s side” and called on the Americans to show “similar flexibility”.

Iraq’s top US administrator, Paul Bremer, was involved in “multiple channels” to try to negotiate an end to the standoff in the south and in the central city of Fallujah, said US. General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Myers warned there was a limit to how long the US Marines could put off a resumption of offensive operations in Fallujah. “At some point somebody has to make a decision on what we’re going to do, and we certainly can’t rule out the use of force there again,” he told a news conference.

After relative peace during the day, gunfire and explosions resumed after sundown yesterday – as they have nightly as Sunni insurgents and US Marines exchange fire over relatively fixed positions.

Some 2,500 US troops have deployed on the edge of Najaf, vowing to “kill or capture” al-Sadr, but for three days they have remained on the outskirts, hunting in palm groves for al-Sadr militiamen but not moving into the city while negotiations continue.

US Maj. Neal O’Brien, however, said the units at Najaf “will not complete this operation” and will likely be replaced by other troops.

Al-Sadr has withdrawn his militiamen from police stations they had occupied in Najaf, Kufa and Karbala last week – meeting a key US demand – and dropped all preconditions for holding negotiations, at the request of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, Iraq’s most prominent Shiite cleric.

Negotiations now appeared focused on dissolving the al-Mahdi Army – a demand al-Sadr has refused – and how to deal with al-Sadr himself. US officials want him put to trial on charges he was involved in the assassination last year of a rival Shiite cleric.

Asked if al-Sadr had agreed to dissolve his militia, his aide al-Khaz’ali said “the negotiations have not produced results yet”. But he added: “God willing, it will be fine.”

Meanwhile, kidnappers freed three Japanese hostages whom they had threatened to kill unless Japan withdraws its troops from Iraq, but two others were reported kidnapped.

At least 19 foreigners remained unaccounted for following a wave of abductions that accompanied the worst violence Iraq has seen since U.S. forces invaded Iraq. An Italian hostage was killed by gunmen who threatened to kill three other Italian captives.

A Danish man is thought to have been taken hostage in Iraq, Denmark's Foreign Ministry said.

“A Danish national likely is being held back in Iraq,” the ministry said in a statement. “No Iraqis or Iraqi groups have contacted Danish authorities.”

According to Danish public television DR-1, the unnamed man was a businessman in his 30s and working on a sewage project in Iraq. He was travelling from the southern Iraqi city of Basra to Baghdad when he was taken captive in Tadji, DR-1 said.