IRAQ: The US military in Iraq was yesterday on the brink of striking a deal with the renegade Shia cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr, after two days of secret negotiations.
An Iraqi political party that has been mediating between the two sides said the coalition had reached agreement with the cleric on virtually all issues.
But the US was still insisting that Sheikh al-Sadr - who led the recent Shia uprising against the US occupation of Iraq, and is holed up in Najaf with thousands of armed followers - stand trial for the murder of a moderate Iraqi cleric.
"We are trying to solve the problem. The US wants a guarantee that Iraqis will try him. But it is impossible for us to arrest him," a mediator, Mr Jawad al-Maliki, said yesterday, before setting off to Najaf from Baghdad for further talks.
Mr Maliki, a spokesman for the moderate Shia Da'awa party, added: "I don't think there is a power on earth that can detain Mr al-Sadr. The problem isn't him. It's his followers."
As negotiations continued, the security situation remained volatile. Insurgents fired 12 mortar bombs at Baghdad's largest prison, Abu Ghraib, killing 22 prisoners and wounding more than 90. But with an agreement likely in Najaf and with refugees trickling back into the besieged town of Falluja, tensions in Iraq appeared to be easing yesterday after the bloodiest month since the fall of Saddam Hussein a year ago.
The US military has killed more than 600 Iraqis in Falluja over the past three weeks. Yesterday, however, witnesses said some shops had reopened and Iraqi police were going back to work. The returnees were venturing back a day after the US military said it would not resume offensive operations in Falluja - as long as resistance fighters inside the city gave up their heavy weapons.
A US soldier died yesterday in the northern city of Mosul after a bomb attack on his convoy.
Yesterday, Thailand became the latest coalition partner to reveal it was considering pulling its troops out. Thailand, which has 451 troops carrying out humanitarian work near Kerbala, said they would be withdrawn if they were attacked. - (Guardian Service)
There were indications last night that the three remaining Italians held hostage would be released. Prime Minister Mr Silvio Berlusconi was confident of news on the hostages in the coming hours, a spokesman said. One of the Italian contractors was killed by his abductors last week, becoming the first foreign hostage in Iraq to be killed.