U.S., Iraqis Loosen Siege of Mosque Amid Peace Talks

A day after launching a major offensive, U.S. and Iraqi forces halted their advance on militiamen loyal to rebel Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr while negotiators worked toward a settlement of the nine-day conflict that has claimed scores, and perhaps hundreds, of lives in this holy city.

The U.S. military said that at the request of the interim Iraqi government, a temporary truce went into effect Friday morning to give the government and Sadr’s aides time to hammer out a political resolution. Meanwhile, in several other cities across Iraq, thousands of anti-American protesters took to the streets to press for an end to the fighting here.

U.S. and Iraqi forces loosened the cordon they had set up a day earlier around the Imam Ali shrine, one of Shiite Islam’s most sacred sites, where Sadr and as many as 1,000 fighters in his Al Mahdi militia are believed to be holed up. The cleric’s deputies said he suffered minor shrapnel wounds early Friday, but Iraqi and American officials disputed the claim, which could not be independently verified.

The attempt to reach a negotiated settlement comes after repeated vows by interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and Sadr to fight to the finish.

Sadr kept up some of his die-hard rhetoric late Friday without appearing to explicitly call off the cease-fire. The bearded young cleric, who has become a hero to impoverished Shiite youths, urged Allawi to resign and compared his government to that of toppled dictator Saddam Hussein.

“I will not leave this holy city,” a spokesman quoted Sadr as telling chanting supporters inside the Imam Ali Mosque. “We will remain here defending the holy shrines till victory or martyrdom.”

Allawi, faced with his new government’s most serious challenge, dispatched his national security advisor for talks Thursday after violence spiraled out from Najaf to engulf other cities.

Although eager to show themselves capable of crushing Iraq’s bloody Shiite and Sunni insurgencies, Allawi and the U.S. want to avoid turning Sadr into a martyr in the eyes of his followers or harming the mosque, which could enrage Shiites the world over.

Friday afternoon, hours before his fiery remarks inside the shrine, Sadr appeared to bend on his refusal to participate in Iraq’s fledgling political system, which he has dismissed as a U.S.-invented sham.

An aide outlined Sadr’s conditions for a peace agreement, including a withdrawal by both sides from Najaf’s Old City, whose sacred sites would be turned over to local religious authorities to administer. Sadr’s militia would then become a political movement and lay down its weapons “except for self-defense,” the aide said.

The question of disarming Sadr’s fighters may be the key to any negotiated settlement. Allawi -- and the U.S. military forces on which he relies -- is unlikely to agree to a solution that would allow Sadr’s loyalists to remain well armed, as occurred in June after the U.S. and Sadr reached an uneasy truce to end a similar uprising. Many Iraqi and American officials believe that the cease-fire merely postponed the showdown over who controls Najaf while allowing Sadr’s militia to regroup and stockpile weapons.

Mass protests demanding an end to the fighting -- and blaming Allawi and the U.S. for provoking it -- filled the streets of cities across Iraq on Friday, including Mosul in the north, Fallouja in the west and Karbala in the south. In Baghdad, several thousand pro-Sadr demonstrators gathered outside the heavily fortified Green Zone, where the U.S. Embassy and Iraqi government offices are located.

“These are heinous crimes being committed by U.S. forces there,” said medical therapist Hussein Mutashar. “We are witnessing days similar to those under Saddam’s regime, if not worse. We are all behind Muqtada Sadr in this cause.”

Protesters labeled Allawi a tool of the U.S., although American officials have taken pains to stress that the prime minister has the final say on how far to press the military campaign against Sadr. The Iraqi government said the U.S. was not involved in negotiations to end the standoff.

Although heated and at times violent, Friday’s demonstrations afforded a respite from the clashes that Iraqi officials said Thursday killed 157 Iraqi civilians, police and soldiers and wounded 600 within a 24-hour period.

The peace talks in Najaf left U.S. and Iraqi forces in a holding pattern Friday after they mounted an offensive the day before to close in on the ancient shrine and isolate Sadr. After expressing their intent to crush the Al Mahdi militia, U.S. planners have settled for clamping a chokehold around Sadr’s forces while taking care not to target the religiously and politically sensitive mosque.

During Friday’s truce, U.S. troops maintained a loose cordon around the shrine and Old City but pulled back slightly from the city’s eastern edge and allowed people to pass through.

As of Friday evening, military officials reported no clashes or mortar strikes, but the main police station was hit by small-arms fire. In contrast to Thursday’s combat, when they went on the offensive and picked fights to draw out militants, U.S. troops watched from afar as Sadr supporters, some toting guns, staged a street protest.

The U.S. said that Iraqi forces, backed by U.S. troops, had raided a mosque where militants were hiding on the outskirts of the nearby town of Kufa before dawn Friday. Twelve militiamen were killed and 12 more were detained, the military said.

U.S. officials cast doubt on statements by Sadr aides that the cleric had been wounded during early-morning shelling of the vast cemetery near the mosque compound. The U.S. said it did not launch artillery or bombs Friday on the graveyard, which saw some of the most intense fighting since clashes erupted Aug. 5.

When Sadr appeared with supporters at the shrine Friday, a bandage was visible on his right arm and hand.

Although the U.S. wants to be seen letting the peace talks take their course, military officials fret that the cease-fire might allow Sadr’s forces to rearm, plan the next round of attacks and possibly bring in reinforcements.

“I hate to see us negotiate now,” said Lt. Col. John Mayer, commander of ground troops with the 1st Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment. “We’ve got him bottled up. He’s been a bully down here.”

Mayer questioned whether Sadr could be trusted to stick to the cease-fire. The U.S. blames Sadr’s militia for breaking the truce, while the firebrand cleric accuses American forces of provoking the fighting.

“Did he uphold his word last time?” Mayer asked rhetorically. “But it’s not my decision. I’m a military man. I do as I’m told.”

Elsewhere, Shiite militants demanding that U.S. troops leave Najaf kidnapped British journalist James Brandon from his hotel in Basra, the southern city where British troops are stationed. Witnesses said gunmen wearing Iraqi police uniforms stormed Brandon’s room and dragged him out of the hotel.

A video of the freelance reporter threatened his execution within 24 hours. But his captors released the 23-year-old Brandon hours later, after Sadr’s aides intervened.

U.S. jets bombed buildings in Fallouja, a stronghold of the Sunni Muslim insurgency. At least four people were reported killed and five injured.

In Al Anbar province, which includes that city, a Marine and a soldier on patrol died in separate incidents, the military announced this morning. More than 930 service members have died in the Iraq war.

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Chu reported from Baghdad and Sanders from Najaf. Times staff writer Mark Mazzetti in Baghdad and special correspondents Said Rifai in Baghdad and Othman Ghanim in Basra contributed to this report.