Iraq mortar attack kills 45

NAJAF - Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric has arrived in Najaf to try to end a bloody 3-week uprising as tensions rose sharply following attacks in a nearby town that killed 45 people and wounded 170.

Al Arabiya television said Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani had begun negotiations on Thursday with representatives of rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose fighters have refused to lay down their weapons and leave Najaf's sacred Imam Ali mosque.

There was no independent confirmation talks were under way.

Sistani drove into Najaf from the southern city of Basra in a huge convoy, guarded by dozens of police pickups with their sirens wailing. Scores of police brandished AK-47 rifles as they drove past thousands lining the streets leading into Najaf.

The violence in nearby Kufa came as Sistani's efforts to try to persuade the Mehdi Army militia to leave Iraq's holiest Shi'ite shrine appeared to be gaining momentum. Sistani has unveiled a peace plan to end the uprising.

Tens of thousands of Iraqis in cars and on foot, many appearing to respond to Sistani's call to rescue the holy city, were converging on Najaf from several regions, witnesses said.

But Sistani, 73, told them to wait at the city's outskirts.

A mortar attack on Kufa's main mosque killed at least 25 Sadr supporters as hundreds of his men gathered inside, officials said. Shi'ite marchers were fired on in Kufa around the same time and 20 were killed, a Reuters photographer said.

The photographer said he had seen 20 bodies under blankets. It was unclear who opened fire or who launched the mortar.

Mohammed Abed al-Kadhem, a doctor at a hospital in the area, said 25 dead and 100 wounded had been brought in from the mosque attack, and at least 10 dead and 70 wounded from the shooting. Other victims were taken to another hospital in the area.

Television pictures showed dozens of wounded men lying in pools of blood around the mosque. Fighting in Najaf, however, appeared to have eased.

TEST FOR ALLAWI

Both the moderate Sistani and the radical Sadr have called on their supporters to converge on Najaf, where the Mehdi Army militiamen are holed up in the Imam Ali mosque.

Hundreds have been killed in the past three weeks in fighting between the militia and US and Iraqi government forces. The clashes have driven oil prices to record highs and undermined interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.

Aide Hamed al-Khafaf told reporters the Iranian-born cleric's peace plan called for all groups in Najaf to lay down their arms and for US forces to leave the city.

Sistani was staying at a house in a wealthy suburb, away from the shrine. Sadr's whereabouts remain a mystery.

Sistani arrived back from London on Wednesday after heart treatment for three weeks. The uprising erupted just as he left his adopted home in Najaf, Iraq's centre of Shi'ite learning.

Allawi said he had ordered his forces to observe a 24-hour ceasefire in Najaf from 3 p.m. (12 p.m.) to help the talks.

In a statement, he said representatives of the young firebrand Sadr -- who has appeared to be ready to accept peace proposals in the past only to back away -- had indicated they would accept the plan from Sistani.

Allawi said Mehdi fighters would be offered an amnesty if they gave up their weapons and left the shrine.

"The Iraqi government will provide them with ways to hand in their weapons and leave the sacred shrine, and we affirm again that we will provide safe passage to Sayyed Moqtada al-Sadr if he chooses to stop the military confrontation," Allawi said.

Najaf's governor said military operations would resume 24 hours later if no agreement was reached.

US firepower has failed to drive Sadr's rebels out of the mosque as have threats and peace offerings from Allawi.

Sistani's followers say the cleric's intervention could break the deadlock in Najaf and ensure a peaceful resolution. He ended a similar uprising from the Mehdi militia in April and May.

Sadr, aged only about 30, has challenged the collegiate leadership of the Najaf clergy headed by Sistani and styled himself as the face of anti-US Shi'ite resistance.


- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq