IRAQ: Shia fighters appeared to be still in control of a holy shrine in Najaf yesterday hours after Iraq's interim government said it had overcome a bloody uprising by seizing the Imam Ali mosque without a shot being fired.
Witnesses in the southern city said Mahdi Army militiamen loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr controlled the narrow alleyways leading to the mosque, although the firebrand leader's whereabouts were unknown. Police were nowhere to be seen.
Police in Najaf told CNN they did not control the site, Iraq's holiest Shi'ite Muslim shrine, the broadcaster reported.
Confusion over the fate of the mosque prevailed as the rebellion that has killed hundreds and driven world oil prices to record highs entered its third week.
Any bloodless seizure of the mosque would be a major political victory for interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, who since taking over from US occupiers on June 28th, has struggled to end an insurgency and now a Shia revolt in eight cities.
An aide to al-Sadr denied comments by the Interior Ministry that police had entered the shrine and arrested hundreds of militiamen.
He said talks were under way to hand control of the mosque to Iraq's most influential cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
"The shrine is in the control of the Mahdi Army," said Sheikh Ahmad al-Sheibani. "The Mahdi Army will resist any attempt by the Iraqi police to control the shrine. Procedures are under way to hand over control of the shrine to Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani."
Sistani told his aides in Najaf to prepare to accept the keys to the mosque, a London-based spokesman for Sistani said.
The apparent concession could just be symbolic, unless the Mahdi militiamen leave the shrine. Sadr's aides have said they still reject Allawi's demands for the militia to disband.
US Rear Admiral Greg Slavonic said he could not confirm the Najaf mosque was in government hands, adding that Sadr's whereabouts were unknown.
"We have no confirmation or intelligence on where he may be," Slavonic said.
At least 77 Iraqis were killed and around 70 wounded in ferocious US air strikes and heavy fighting in the previous 24 hours in the city, health officials said.
The uprising has contributed to world oil prices setting new records, with US crude hitting more than $49 a barrel yesterday.
Insurgents in Iraq have waged a campaign of kidnapping aimed at driving out individuals, companies and troops supporting US forces and the new Baghdad administration. An Islamist group has seized 12 Nepali workers because of their co-operation with US forces, a statement issued yesterday said.
The Interior Ministry's spokesman, Sabah Kadhim, appealed to al-Sadr to turn himself in. Kadhim said Sadr might have escaped overnight and urged him to surrender so he might be covered by an amnesty Allawi has offered to some of those opposing his government.
Allawi had pledged his forces would not storm the shrine. "We are not going to attack the mosque, we are not going to attack Moqtada al-Sadr in the mosque," Allawi earlier told BBC radio, adding Sadr's militia had wired it up with explosives.
Sadr's offer to hand control of the shrine to Shi'ite religious authorities and Allawi's conciliatory statement followed the most intense US bombardment of Mehdi militia positions since the conflict erupted.
US AC-130 and helicopter gunships had struck repeatedly overnight and early yesterday, sending orange flashes and white sparks into the sky.
Booming explosions shook houses far from the battle zone. The attacks eased at daybreak.
The militia has been running the shrine since an earlier uprising in April.
For local residents, just surviving matters most. "I really don't believe any news anymore," said Mohammed Jassim, a father of eight, shaking his head as he stood on a street corner, gunfire crackling overhead.
"We have heard it all before from both sides. We are not living like humans."