IRAQ: Shia cleric Sheikh Moqtada al-Sadr yesterday urged Iraq's "dictatorial" interim government to resign and said he and his militia would remain in the holy city of Najaf until death or victory, his spokesman said.
The spokesman quoted Sheikh al-Sadr as telling supporters at Imam Ali Mosque: "I advise the dictatorial, agent government to resign... the whole Iraqi people demands the resignation of the government... they replaced Saddam with a government worse than him." Demonstrators gathered in seven cities in Iraq and in neighbouring Iran to vent their anger at the assault on Sheikh al-Sadr's forces launched by US marines on Thursday. There were conflicting reports over whether Sheikh al-Sadr had been wounded during the fighting.
Gunmen also kidnapped a British journalist in the southern city of Basra, threatening to execute him within 24 hours if US forces did not pull out of Najaf.
However Sunday Telegraph reporter James Brandon was later released after Sheikh al-Sadr intervened. An al-Sadr spokesman said said Sheikh al-Sadr was demanding the release of his captive guerrillas, and an amnesty for his fighters, who should be allowed to participate in Iraq's political process.
"Sayyed Moqtada will not be touched if he leaves the shrine peacefully," Interior Minister Mr Falah al-Naqib said.
The nine-day uprising in Najaf has killed hundreds, and threatened to undermine the rule of interim Prime Minister Mr Iyad Allawi, who is walking a tightrope trying to crush the radical Shia rebellion across southern Iraq that has hit oil exports.
By evening, witnesses said US soldiers had withdrawn from positions near Sheikh al-Sadr's house in Najaf, which they raided on Thursday during their offensive on fighters around the Imam Ali mosque and the city's cemetery.
Spokesman Mr Ahmad al-Shinabi said Sheikh al-Sadr was wounded in the chest, arm and leg at 4.30 a.m. ( local time) in the cemetery yesterday.
Interior Minister Mr al-Naqib denied Sheikh al-Sadr was wounded, and said a truce had been in force since last night.
He said the government was negotiating Sheikh al-Sadr's departure from the Imam Ali shrine.
The Najaf assault drove world oil prices to new highs, but yesterday US light crude futures were at $45.60 a barrel, down from Thursday's $45.75 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Planes yesterday bombed targets in the city of Falluja for the second day, killing six Iraqis including two children, hospital officials said. The US military said it had no comment.
"We have ceased offensive military operations at this time," said a US military spokesman. "There were some clashes this morning, but then the order came down to cease operations."
Violence flared beyond Najaf. In the southern town of Kufa, 10km from the city, Iraqi security forces killed several people in a raid on a Sheikh al-Sadr stronghold. In the southern town of Hilla, several hundred Sheikh al-Sadr loyalists surrounded 20 Polish soldiers at a police station where they had been supporting Iraqi officers, said Polish general staff spokesman Col Zdzislaw Gnatowski. "If they don't reach an agreement, it may be necessary to use force." There is growing anger at the US assault near Iraq's holiest Shia sites even from those who scorn Sheikh al-Sadr's views.
Thousands of Sheikh al-Sadr supporters protested in front of the Green Zone compound housing the Iraqi government and the US embassy in Baghdad. Protests also took place in Diwaniya, Kufa, Samawa, Kirkuk, Kerbala and Falluja. Thousands of Shia also demonstrated in Iran, which has called for US troops to leave Iraq.