IRAQ: US troops and Shi'ite militiamen battled in the holy Iraqi city of Najaf yesterday, just hours after political and religious leaders in Baghdad agreed to make a last-ditch appeal for peace.
Broadening their uprising from the urban battlefield in Najaf and seven other cities, the Mehdi army of radical cleric Sheikh Moqtada al-Sadr set an oil well on fire in southern Iraq, the government said.
Iraqis meeting to pick an interim national assembly in Baghdad said they would send a delegation to Najaf to try to convince Sheikh al-Sadr to end a conflict that has killed hundreds and undermined the authority of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.
Last minute hiccups with transport delayed departure of the delegation until this morning, officials said.
In the heart of Najaf, US forces backed by tanks exchanged fire with militiamen entrenched around the sacred Imam Ali Mosque and an ancient cemetery.
Explosions boomed and the crackle of machine gun fire echoed across the city, 160 km south of Baghdad.
The move to send the delegation came after the Najaf unrest again dominated the meeting in Baghdad where 1,300 political and religious leaders will select a 100-member assembly to oversee Mr Allawi's interim government until elections in January.
"We will deliver this urgent call from the national conference to Moqtada al-Sadr . . . to try to solve this problem at its roots," said senior delegate Mr Hussein al-Sadr, a distant relative but a political opponent of the firebrand cleric.
The cleric would meet the delegation, an aide said.
Fighting also raged between American soldiers and the Mehdi army in a Shi'ite slum in Baghdad, where gunmen exploded a bomb under a US tank and then set it on fire. The crew escaped with minor wounds, a US army spokesman said.
A low-flying US helicopter gunship later opened fire on the street where the tank was hit. Militiamen responded with rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles.
The delegation will try to give Sheikh al-Sadr a letter, urging him to leave the shrine where he is holed up with his fighters and turn his Mehdi army into a political party.
But the cleric has shown little sign of compromise, vowing to fight to the death if necessary.
He has demanded US forces leave the city and the government grant an amnesty to his fighters as part of any deal to end the 12-day conflict.
The unrest forced Iraq to keep a main southern oil pipeline shut yesterday, reducing export flows by almost half, an official said.
Three US soldiers were killed in action on Sunday in Najaf province, the military said. It gave no details.
A French journalist holding a US passport has been seized in the southern city of Nassiriya, Al Jazeera television reported.
The Interior Ministry said it was checking reports that journalist Micah Jaren and his Iraqi translator were missing.
The French and American embassies said they had no information on the report. Last week, gunmen kidnapped and then freed a British journalist in the southern city of Basra.
A Turkish television station reported two Turkish truck drivers had been abducted in Iraq by suspected insurgents. The news came shortly after the mother of a Syrian hostage said her son and two Lebanese colleagues held hostage had been released.
Meanwhile thousands of protesters from southern Iraq have joined Sheikh al-Sadr in the Imam Ali Mosque, promising to act as human shields.
Iraq's Interior Ministry said it had issued an order for Iraqi and US forces not to attack the shrine. Such an assault would trigger outrage among Iraq's Shi'ite majority.
Despite the apparent pro-government stance of the delegation, the three-day conference has exposed deep divisions in Iraq over Najaf, with many delegates upset that US forces are fighting so close to Shi'ite Islam's holiest site.
Some have threatened to quit an event already beset by boycotts from players such as Sheikh al-Sadr and other religious groups.
The interim assembly is due to be chosen today. Once appointed, the assembly will be able to veto legislation with a two-thirds majority, approve Iraq's 2005 budget, and appoint a new prime minister or president should either resign or die in office.
In violence elsewhere in Iraq, gunmen killed the commander of the Iraqi National Guard and four bodyguards in the Sunni Muslim city of Samarra yesterday, a police spokesman said. - (Reuters)