IRAQ: Shia fighters left Iraq's holiest shrine in Najaf yesterday and began turning in their weapons, after tens of thousands of pilgrims celebrated a peace agreement that ended a bloody rebellion.
But good news of the peace deal was dampened last night when Arabic television station al- Jazeera reported that the bodies of two Turkish hostages had been found north of the Iraqi town of Baiji, apparently shot dead.
Religious authorities in Najaf locked the doors of the Imam Ali mosque after the al-Mahdi army militia of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr left. The fighters had defied US military firepower and the interim Iraqi government for three weeks.
Iraq's most revered cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani made a dramatic return to Najaf on Thursday and persuaded Mr Sadr to accept a peace deal to halt the fighting, after a day of violence in which 110 Iraqis were killed and 501 wounded.
Militants tossed AK-47 assault rifles and mortar launchers into wooden carts being pushed around near the shrine. Mosque loudspeaker announcements in Mr Sadr's name gave the order.
Al-Arabiya television said Mr Sadr's representatives had handed over the keys to the mosque. Iraqi police took control of the area around the mosque, as envisaged under the deal.
Several al-Mahdi militants refused to give up their guns while some US troops - who are supposed to leave the southern city in line with the peace deal - were seen nearby.
By mid-afternoon, the narrow streets around the mosque were relatively quiet, destroyed and blackened buildings a testament to the fierce fighting that killed hundreds and drove world oil prices to record highs.
However, a big question mark hangs over what role Mr Sadr and his militia want to play in Iraq, especially ahead of elections in January.
The Prime Minister, Mr Iyad Allawi, gave them an amnesty under the peace deal. Mr Sadr draws formidable support from Iraq's downtrodden majority Shias.
After the bitter fighting with US marines, many al-Mahdi militants still breathed defiance yesterday.
"We will support whatever Ayatollah Sistani and Sayyed Moqtada have agreed. But we will still slit the throats of the Americans," said one militiaman, Mr Hussein Taama.
Another held an AK-47 rifle which he said was his personal weapon that he would not give up: "I will keep this warm and wait for Sayyed Moqtada's order."
Iraqi police took reporters to a room that had been used as an Islamic courthouse by Mr Sadr's supporters. Inside the courthouse, about 200 metres from the sacred shrine, were 15 bloated, blackened corpses covered in flies.
"Cover your noses. This is where the Mahdi army slit the throats of people and then left them there to rot," said one policeman. But the Islamic court's chief administrator, Mr Hashim Abu Reef, denied the police accusations.
"We denounce this charge. This government is very capable of trying to frame us. Those corpses are our fighters, which we could not wash or move because the Iraqi government and Americans cut off the electricity and water," he said.
"There is also one woman who was passing by the shrine and killed by a sniper. We can identify each and every body."
The Najaf uprising has been a stark reminder to the interim government and the US of the huge hurdles that lie ahead in Iraq.
Although fighting has ended for now in Najaf, elsewhere it has not. Insurgents attacked US troops with hand grenades in Baghdad yesterday, wounding 12 soldiers, the US military said.