Peace talks fail between Iraqi militants, officials

NAJAF, Iraq – Fighting between Shiite militants and U.S. and Iraqi forces was poised to flare anew here after talks between rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and the Iraqi government collapsed Saturday, raising fears of a climactic showdown in one of Shiite Islam’s holiest cities.

Mowafak Rubaee, national security adviser to interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, said that negotiations for a peaceful resolution to the conflict had broken down and that a temporary cease-fire declared just a day earlier no longer applied.

“It is with deep sorrow and regret that I announce the failure of efforts to end the crisis in Iraq peacefully,” Rubaee told reporters here, adding that “military clearing operations” would resume “to establish law and order (in) this holy city.”

It was unclear, however, when U.S. troops and members of the Iraqi National Guard and police would relaunch the multi-pronged offensive against al-Sadr’s followers that began Thursday. Before the truce took effect, U.S. and Iraqi forces had encircled the sacred Imam Ali mosque in Najaf’s Old City, where al-Sadr and as many as 1,000 members of his Al Mahdi militia are holed up.

‘An Iraqi solution’

A few hours after talks fell apart, the United States began mobilizing to resume the intense combat that has raged nearly nonstop in Najaf since Aug. 5. Hundreds of troops lined up in tanks and other armored vehicles at a base on the northern edge of the city.

But just as the convoy was ready to roll, officers ordered the engines cut and the troops to return. Military officials declined to discuss the reason but said they were following the cues of the Iraqi government.

“Allawi has decided there has to be an Iraqi solution to the problem,” said Maj. David Holahan, executive officer of the 1st Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment. “We were ready to help them if they directed us to. … We developed a plan in case one was requested, but we were not directed to execute the plan.”

Still, one of al-Sadr’s aides warned earlier that “a massacre” was just hours away, and tense anticipation saturated the night air.

The failure to reach an agreement casts a pall over a three-day conference due to begin today in Baghdad to help choose a 100-member national assembly with limited powers. The government touts the conference as a key step on the road to democratic elections in January, but some groups, including al-Sadr’s militants, are boycotting the gathering, which they label a U.S. creation.

Both sides blamed each other for the failure of the Najaf talks, which had offered a slight hope for a negotiated end to a confrontation that has left hundreds dead here and in other Iraqi cities where pro-al-Sadr militants have risen up in solidarity.

There were conflicting accounts, even within the al-Sadr camp, as to what caused the dialogue to halt so abruptly. Al-Sadr spokesman Qais Khazali said the cleric had agreed to almost all the government’s demands before Rubaee, Allawi’s chief negotiator, suddenly pulled out of the talks. Khazali accused the government of never really intending to negotiate in good faith.

Rubaee said dialogue foundered after al-Sadr refused to meet with him face to face, despite repeated promises. The government also insists that al-Sadr’s militia vacate the Imam Ali mosque and lay down its arms – something that the fighters have not shown themselves willing to do, U.S. and Iraqi officials say.

“The Iraqi interim government has exhausted all efforts and did not leave any stone unturned to reach … a peaceful conclusion to this crisis,” Rubaee said. After three days of fruitless negotiation, Allawi had had enough, the negotiator said.

As the prospect of renewed combat arose, attention refocused on Najaf’s ancient gold-domed Imam Ali mosque, which the militants have used effectively as a launching pad for attacks and a shield against return fire. Iraqi and U.S. officials so far have refrained from mounting any offensive against the shrine for fear of damaging it and igniting the anger of Shiites worldwide, who revere it as the burial place of the prophet Muhammad’s son-in-law.

U.S. military planners say their strategy is to isolate al-Sadr’s forces inside the mosque, cutting them off from the rest of the city. Any move to rout al-Sadr from the shrine would be conducted by Iraqi forces – under the supervision of the U.S. military – to lessen the political fallout.

Rebellion troubles Allawi

Allawi has expressed his determination to stamp out the rebellion by al-Sadr and his followers, who openly have challenged his fledgling government’s legitimacy and cast themselves – with increasing success – as the true defenders of Iraq’s sovereignty from U.S. control. The tough-talking Allawi has staked his reputation on proving himself a leader capable of crushing Iraq’s bloody Sunni and Shiite Muslim insurgencies and restoring order to a lawless land.

But al-Sadr, whose rise to power on the strength of his illustrious family name and a fiery appeal to poor, dispossessed young Shiites, has proved a wily opponent. The cleric has kept the Iraqi government off-balance by mixing appeals for peace talks with rousing calls to his followers to keep on fighting.

The standoff raises the specter of a revival of clashes between the Al Mahdi militia and U.S. and Iraqi forces in other cities. Even while the truce was in effect in Najaf on Saturday, pro-al-Sadr militants squared off with Iraqi police in Hilla, south of Baghdad, the capital, in intense fighting that has left 40 people dead since Friday.

Faced with the prospect of a major insurrection, Allawi ordered the cease-fire Friday to give talks a chance, despite his own previous avowals not to negotiate. U.S. military officials chafed at the suspension of combat, worried that al-Sadr’s forces would use the interlude to regroup and bring in reinforcements.

Thousands of people poured into this city from other parts of Iraq on Saturday to demonstrate their support of the firebrand cleric.

Elsewhere, in the northern city of Samarra, a hotbed of Sunni Muslim insurgents, U.S. fighter planes dropped 500-pound bombs on buildings in which guerrillas were believed to be hiding. U.S.officials said 50 militants were killed. The Iraqi Health Ministry reported the deaths of three civilians.