Iraqi delegation arrives for al-Sadr talks

An Iraqi delegation sent by a national conference in Baghdad flew to besieged Najaf by helicopter today to present radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr with a peace proposal aimed at ending a violent insurgency wracking the holy city.

Despite the delegation’s arrival, fighting intensified in Najaf, with at least one US warplane dropping bombs near the city’s sprawling cemetery – the site of recent clashes between American forces and Shiite militants.

Explosions and gunfire shook the streets throughout the day and US troops entered the flash-point Old City neighbourhood, where al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army was based.

The clashes today killed three people and wounded 15 others, all of them civilians, according to rescue workers.

Two of the civilians were killed when gunfire hit the office of the Badr Brigades, the militant wing of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a Shiite political group which is not involved in the fighting.

In Baghdad, a mortar round killed seven people and injured 47 others when it was fired into a busy street.

The mortar did not appear to be aimed at the conference but rather was a routine attack intended “to create chaos in the country,” said Sabah Kadhim, Interior Ministry spokesman.

The conference itself was considered a major target for militants waging a 16-month-old insurgency, and two explosions today shook the convention centre where it was being held.

Al-Sadr aide Ali al-Yassiry said he was slightly injured in the blast. Al-Sadr’s followers have said they were boycotting the gathering, though several members of his movement have been seen there in recent days.

Al-Sadr militants have been battling US troops in Najaf since August 5, when a two-month cease-fire broke down.

The eight-member Najaf peace delegation – seven of them Shiites – arrived at a US military base in Najaf on board two US Army Blackhawk helicopters.

The peace proposal was cobbled together by delegates at Iraq’s National Conference, which has been extended to Wednesday.

The proposal demands that al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia put down its arms, leave the revered Imam Ali Shrine where it is holed up and join Iraq’s political process in exchange for amnesty.

“This is not a negotiation. This is a friendly mission to convey the message of the National Conference,” said delegation head Hussein al-Sadr, a distant relative of the cleric.

“We want to change the Mahdi Army into a political organisation and to evacuate the shrine of Ali with the promise not to legally pursue those taking shelter there. This is what the government and all Iraqis want.”

Al-Sadr aides said they welcomed the mission, but not the peace proposal.

A much larger delegation of 60 conference members had planned to take a convoy on the 100 mile journey to Najaf, but the trip was called off because of security concerns.

The National Conference was supposed to be a revolutionary moment in Iraq’s democratic transformation post-Saddam Hussein, an unprecedented gathering of 1,300 Iraqis from all ethnic and religious groups for vigorous debate over their country’s course.