Fighting goes on in 'truce' city Najaf

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.

The deal aimed to end two weeks of fighting between al-Sadr’s forces and US and Iraqi troops in the holy city.

Al-Sadr has made contradictory statements in the past, and aides to the cleric said he still wanted to negotiate details of the peace deal – including brokering a cease-fire prior to any disarmament.

In Washington, the Bush administration said al-Sadr needed to match words with deeds.

“We have seen many, many times al-Sadr assume or say he is going to accept certain terms and then it turns out not to be the case,” said Condoleezza Rice, President George Bush’s national security adviser.

The cease-fire agreement was announced at the National Conference in Baghdad, which had sent a delegation to negotiate with al-Sadr.

The conference, a gathering of more than 1,000 prominent Iraqis that was seen as an important milestone on the country’s path to democracy, spilled into an unscheduled fourth day yesterday so it could choose members of an interim National Council.

A planned vote to affirm 81 candidates was called off at the last minute, and the conference organisers simply affirmed the group – to the dismay of many of those who were not included in the council. The final 19 members of the 100-member council will be members of the former US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council who were left out of the interim government.

Al-Sadr’s loyalists and a combined US-Iraqi force have been fighting for nearly two weeks throughout Najaf, battling in the vast graveyard and in the streets of its Old City.

A wall surrounding the Imam Ali Shrine, where the militants have holed up, was reportedly chipped in the fighting, and any damage to the gold-domed mosque itself would infuriate the world’s 120 million Shiite Muslims.

The drawn-out fighting, which spread to other Shiite areas, has already burnished al-Sadr’s reputation among poor, grassroots Shiites at the expense of more senior – and more moderate – clerics and hampered the government’s efforts to quell a separate Sunni insurgency.

Iraqi Defence Minister Hazem Shaalan had said the government could send Iraqi forces to raid the shrine.

Hours later, al-Sadr’s office sent a message to the conference, saying he would accept the gathering’s peace proposal, which demands his militia drop its arms, withdraw from the shrine and transform itself into a political party in exchange for amnesty.

Al-Sadr aide Ahmed al-Shaibany said US forces must first stop attacking.

The US military says the clashes have killed hundreds of militants, though the militants deny that. Eight US soldiers and at least 40 Iraqi police have also been killed.

Eight people were killed and 27 wounded in fighting in Najaf yesterday, Hussein Hadi of Najaf General Hospital said.

One US soldier was shot and killed during an attack on troops patrolling Baghdad, the military said.

Two marines assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force were also killed, the military said. One marine was killed while conducting “security and stability operations” in Najaf, and the other died in a vehicle accident in Anbar province.

In the northern city of Mosul, a mortar round slammed into a busy market yesterday, killing five civilians and wounding 21, the US military said.