Shiite leaders try to salvage truce in Najaf
Tuesday, June 1, 2004 8:28 AM PDT
By Los Angeles Times
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E-mail this articleNAJAF, Iraq -- Shiite leaders made a desperate effort Monday to salvage a truce between U.S. forces and militiamen loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, even as American military commanders declared that the insurgents have failed to honor the four-day old cease-fire.
Despite the truce, fierce firefights during the weekend killed dozens of militiamen and two American gunners, the area's first U.S. casualties in six weeks.
U.S. commanders said al-Sadr has not kept his promise to withdraw some fighters from Najaf and Kufa and that his militia has taken advantage of the cease-fire to fortify its positions for future clashes in the holy cities.
In their latest effort to end the clashes, Shiite leaders in Baghdad called on the United States to halt "aggressive patrolling" in both cities and on al-Sadr's fighters to withdraw from holy sites.
U.S. military officials said they were prepared to negotiate anew. "At the end of the day we'd rather solve this peacefully and quietly than with a lot of noise and a lot of weapons," said Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad. "We've got to stop the fighting because it is leading nowhere."
The United States is seeking to reduce hostilities in various parts of Iraq before it hands over power to an interim Iraqi government on June 30.
Al-Sadr, a Shiite cleric who heads a militia known as the Al Mahdi army, has vowed to help derail the U.S. plans. For weeks, his fighters have clashed with U.S. soldiers in Baghdad's Sadr city slum and in Najaf and Kufa.
Last week, U.S. military officials embraced a deal reached by the Mahdi militia and moderate Shiite leaders. The agreement called for al-Sadr to relinquish control of government buildings and send some of his armed followers home. In return, U.S. forces agreed to pull back to a few small bases in Najaf and Kufa, and to be gradually replaced by Iraqi police.
Parts of the deal began to unravel when some 100 Iraqi police who arrived to replace American soldiers promptly packed up and abandoned their posts, complaining that they were not provided with adequate pay, supplies and accommodations.
Since the agreement, U.S. military officials said skirmishes in Najaf's city center have cooled, some shops have reopened and pedestrians have returned to some streets.
But U.S. patrols have drawn heavy mortar attacks and gunfire when they venture near Kufa and the Imam Ali Mosque, a famous Shiite shrine in southern Najaf.
"There is definitely a militia presence in both cities," said 1st Lt. Colin Cremin, company commander of the base responsible for a large portion of Najaf. "They've moved their troops toward the holy sites and set up pretty heavy defenses. They are dug in now. It was more a chance for them to consolidate than a truce."
On Sunday night, U.S. officials said that al-Sadr's fighters ambushed a patrol with small-arms fire. When the fighting ended early Monday, two U.S. gunners atop their tanks had been killed.
"It's like losing your brother," said Lt. Col. Pat White, the commanding officer of a U.S. base located between Najaf and Kufa. "It's gonna hurt the troops for a while, but they gotta go back out there and start again."
Hospital officials said at least one Iraqi was killed and eight injured. Al-Sadr's militia often avoids taking its casualties to government hospitals for fear of arrest.
In Baghdad, a group of Shiite leaders said they were close to getting both sides to end the clashes.
"There is an agreement between the Shia House and Sadr's office to defuse the crisis," said Adnan Dhurfi, the U.S.-appointed governor of Najaf. "We are waiting for an official response from the American side."
The new proposal appeared to be a reprise of Thursday's deal.
Dhurfi said U.S officials are expected to agree to not let American soldiers enter "sacred areas" of the holy cities. Instead, another attempt will be made to have those areas patrolled by Iraqi police.
The governor said the agreement also called for American military officials to drop their demand that al-Sadr surrender to face criminal charges for allegedly plotting the slaying of a rival.
Kimmitt said that the United States was employing negotiation, rather than military force. He repeated a recent U.S. position that al-Sadr must face Iraqi justice and that his militia must disband -- in contrast to the stated U.S. objectives of "killing or capturing" al-Sadr and "crushing" his militia.
Kimmitt insisted that "our objectives have not changed. But the way we are intending to achieve those objectives may have changed.
"Rather than use simply military force, we are now also exploring the use of political methods and diplomatic methods to try to use Iraqi leadership to be part of the solution," he said.
As the United States attempted to quell al-Sadr's rebellion, an explosion that killed at least four people in central Baghdad served as a reminder that violence could increase as the handover nears.
Authorities said the blast came from a Mercedes Benz packed with explosives. Some 20 other bystanders were injured in the residential Harithiyah district.
The explosion left a waist-deep crater and littered the street with patches of charred flesh. Among the dead were a woman, a young girl, and at least two others, said an official with the Ministry of Health.
As firefighters doused several vehicles that had caught fire in the explosion, emergency crews pulled a man's limp body from behind the wheel of a blue Land Rover.
Soldiers from the 1st Cavalry Division and Iraqi Police cordoned of the area as distraught relatives, onlookers and media crews crowded the scene.
Shop owners and residents said they were puzzled why their neighborhood was targeted, noting that it had no political offices and police stations -- frequent targets for such attacks. Some residents speculated that the car bomb may have gone off accidentally.
"There's nothing here, there are only the innocent," said Weleed Kasim, who works in a nearby convenience store. "There are no Americans here."
Muafak Alrubaii, Iraq's national security adviser, told Arabic language television that the car bomb was probably intended to kill a Governing Council member driving to work in the so-called Green Zone, a heavily fortified area housing offices of the U.S. occupation.
"This explosion was intended to hit the cars when they pass by it," he said.
The explosion occurred less than a mile from where the head of the Governing Council, Izzadine Saleem, was assassinated in a car bombing two weeks ago.
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