IRAQ: Iraq's most revered Shia leader has persuaded a rebel cleric to accept a deal ending a three-week uprising in Najaf, after returning to the holy city amid bloody clashes which killed at least 74 people.
"We are three-quarters towards the end of this crisis," said Mr Hamed al-Khafaf, senior aide to Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani who entered Najaf in a huge convoy of vehicles earlier yesterday for talks with radical rival Moqtada al-Sadr.
He said Mr Sadr, whose fighters have been holed up in the Imam Ali mosque and battling US and Iraqi forces in the alleys outside, agreed to all points of Ayatollah Sistani's peace plan to end fighting which has killed hundreds, driven oil prices to record highs and has undermined the authority of the Prime Minister, Mr Iyad Allawi.
Iraq's Minister of State Mr Kasim Daoud said the government accepted the peace deal and that US forces would withdraw from Najaf when Mr Allawi instructed them to do so. He added that Mr Sadr would remain free.
"I would like to congratulate the Iraqi people for the victory they have won today," he told a news conference. "We will have a peaceful Najaf and Kufa, free from weapons and free from militias." Mr Daoud added that Iraq's government would fund the reconstruction of Najaf.
The plan involves Mr Sadr's Mahdi Army militiamen leaving the sacred Imam Ali shrine. US forces are also to leave Najaf, with security being turned over to Iraqi police.
Mr Khafaf said Ayatollah Sistani had also asked the Iraqi government to allow Shia marchers to enter the sacred shrine. Tens of thousands of Shias have converged on Najaf, heeding calls by Ayatollah Sistani and Mr Sadr to march on the city.
The deal came after a day of bloodshed. At least 15 Sistani supporters were shot dead in Najaf and 65 wounded when gunmen opened fire at police who were trying to control a crowd, prompting police to shoot back, witnesses said.
In nearby Kufa, a mortar attack on the town's main mosque killed at least 25 Sadr supporters as hundreds of his men inside prepared to march on Najaf, officials said.
Shia marchers were fired on in Kufa around the same time and at least 20 were killed, a photographer on the scene said. It was unclear who carried out the attacks.
The Health Ministry said at least 74 people were killed in yesterday's attacks in Najaf and Kufa and hundreds wounded.
Ayatollah Sistani (73) drove into Najaf from the southern city of Basra in a huge convoy, guarded by dozens of police pick- ups with their sirens wailing.
Scores of police brandished AK-47 rifles as they drove past thousands lining the streets leading into Najaf. Tens of thousands of Iraqis in cars and on foot travelled to Najaf to welcome him, but Ayatollah Sistani told them to wait at the city's outskirts.
The ayatollah returned from London on Wednesday after heart treatment for three weeks. The uprising erupted just as he left his adopted home in Najaf, Iraq's centre of Shia learning.
Mr Allawi said he had ordered his forces to observe a 24-hour ceasefire in Najaf from 3 p.m. to help the talks. The US military said it was suspending offensive operations, and fighting waned on Thursday evening after the earlier tension. Mr Allawi added that Mahdi army fighters would be offered an amnesty if they gave up their weapons and left the shrine. "The Iraqi government will provide them with ways to hand in their weapons and leave the sacred shrine and we affirm again that we will provide safe passage to Said Moqtada al-Sadr if he chooses to stop the military confrontation."
Ayatollah Sistani's followers say the cleric's intervention could be crucial in getting the deal to last and ensuring a peaceful resolution after US fire-power failed to drive rebels from the mosque. The elderly cleric helped end an earlier uprising by Mr Sadr's supporters in April and May.