War over peace in Iraq

NAJAF – Heavy fighting shook the historic heart of Najaf yesterday as delegates from a key national conference arrived on a mission to coax Shiite militia leader Moqtada Sadr into abandoning his stronghold in the Iraqi holy city.

As the conference carried on into its last day, mortar attacks in the capital killed seven people and wounded 49 – two of them hurt when a projectile landed inside the fortified Green Zone close to where the meeting was underway. Despite the violence in Najaf, eight delegates flew down there on US helicopters to urge Sadr to lay down his arms, leave the Imam Ali shrine – one of Shiite Islam’s holiest – and join the political process.”This is not a negotiation.This is a friendly mission to convey the message of the national conference,” said Baghdad cleric Sheikh Hussein al-Sadr, a relative of Moqtada who is leading the delegation.Speaking in Turkey, Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawar weighed in to urge Sadr to “stop this nonsense” and join the political mainstream.Earlier, an Iraqi photographer working for the Reuters news agency was wounded as clashes between Sadr’s Mehdi Army and US forces rumbled on ahead of a threatened major assault.”I was hit in the legs as I tried to escape,” after taking pictures of US tanks, a bandaged Ali Abu al-Shish, 25, told AFP at his hotel.Ghalib al-Jazairi, Najaf’s police chief, has threatened to storm the shrine “and kill each one of them” unless they disarm and leave of their own accord.Sadr has also invited Pope John Paul II to solve the crisis, spokesman Ahmed al-Shaibani said, but Vatican spokesman Ciro Benedettini said the Holy See was only willing to mediate if requested to do so by both sides.At the national conference – heavily overshadowed by the Najaf conflict – 450 delegates accused the main political parties of hijacking a scheduled vote for a new interim legislature, saying members were chosen long ago in secret.Many of them threatened to quit the conference on its last day unless the voting mechanism was changed, before Fuad Maasum, head of the event’s preparatory committee, agreed to put the voting procedure itself to a vote.”If this is not dealt with today then the whole conference will fall apart and I will walk out, with hundreds with me,” said Aziz al-Yasseri, from the broad coalition National Democratic Movement.Nineteen of the 100 seats on the body have already been handed to members of the defunct Governing Council, which was established by the US-led occupation after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 and included many returning exiles.- Nampa-AFPDespite the violence in Najaf, eight delegates flew down there on US helicopters to urge Sadr to lay down his arms, leave the Imam Ali shrine – one of Shiite Islam’s holiest – and join the political process.”This is not a negotiation.This is a friendly mission to convey the message of the national conference,” said Baghdad cleric Sheikh Hussein al-Sadr, a relative of Moqtada who is leading the delegation.Speaking in Turkey, Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawar weighed in to urge Sadr to “stop this nonsense” and join the political mainstream.Earlier, an Iraqi photographer working for the Reuters news agency was wounded as clashes between Sadr’s Mehdi Army and US forces rumbled on ahead of a threatened major assault.”I was hit in the legs as I tried to escape,” after taking pictures of US tanks, a bandaged Ali Abu al-Shish, 25, told AFP at his hotel.Ghalib al-Jazairi, Najaf’s police chief, has threatened to storm the shrine “and kill each one of them” unless they disarm and leave of their own accord.Sadr has also invited Pope John Paul II to solve the crisis, spokesman Ahmed al-Shaibani said, but Vatican spokesman Ciro Benedettini said the Holy See was only willing to mediate if requested to do so by both sides.At the national conference – heavily overshadowed by the Najaf conflict – 450 delegates accused the main political parties of hijacking a scheduled vote for a new interim legislature, saying members were chosen long ago in secret.Many of them threatened to quit the conference on its last day unless the voting mechanism was changed, before Fuad Maasum, head of the event’s preparatory committee, agreed to put the voting procedure itself to a vote.”If this is not dealt with today then the whole conference will fall apart and I will walk out, with hundreds with me,” said Aziz al-Yasseri, from the broad coalition National Democratic Movement.Nineteen of the 100 seats on the body have already been handed to members of the defunct Governing Council, which was established by the US-led occupation after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 and included many returning exiles.- Nampa-AFP