Sadr Fails to Show Up Due to Continued Shelling

"He declined to meet them due to security reasons and heavy shelling in An-Najaf," Reuters news agency quoted Sheikh Mahmmoud Al-Soudani as saying.

The failure to hold face-to-face talks raises the possibility of a repeat of US-led offensive to crush Sadr’s Mahdi Army in the city, scene of 13 days of fierce fighting that has killed hundreds.

The group of eight drove to Sadr’s office seeking to end a rebellion in the holy city and other parts of Iraq .

The group, led by Sadr’s relative Sheikh Hussein Al-Sadr, relayed a call from the National Conference to disarm his militia and leave the holy shrine of Imam Ali.

The delegation flew in on US Black Hawk helicopters from the National Conference in Baghdad where 1,300 delegates sought to select an interim national assembly to oversee the government of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.

The event, scheduled to end on Tuesday, was extended to Wednesday, August 18, after many delegates opposed a list of 81 candidates presented to the meeting by the pro-US interim government, conference chairman Fouad Massoum said.

The remaining 19 members will come from the Governing Council, a 25-member body appointed by the US-led occupation before the June handover of power.

The conference put forward Monday, August 16, a new peace initiative with Sadr to defuse the current standoff between the anti-occupation firebrand Sadr and the interim government of Iyad Allawi.

Most of the summiteers have called on Sadr to leave the Imam Ali Shrine and relinquish the holy sites to the interim government.

Continued Aggressions

Another Sadr aide told reporters accompanying the delegation that Sadr refused to meet them "because of continued aggression by the Americans".

The delegation had met Sadr’s top aides and waited for the young leader for three hours at the city’s holiest shrine, the Imam Ali Mosque, where many of Sadr’s fighters are holed up.

Sadr’s top aide Sheikh Ali Smeisim, who met with the delegation, tried to soften the impact of Sadr’s failure to show up.

"What we heard [from the delegation] contains positive indications. We are willing to discuss them," he said.

He had told the delegation that Sadr was at a "secret location" and would come if the US forces eased its noose around the shrines.

There were chaotic scenes when the delegation arrived inside the Imam Ali shrine.

More than 1,000 young men shouted, beat their chests, raised their fists in the air and chanted "long live Moqtada."

The US occupation forces launched a sweeping offensive Thursday, August 12, in a bid to crush down the uprising of the Mahdi Army.

Iraqi Sunni and Shiite leaders slammed the Najaf clashes as a "bloodbath" and called upon the international community to rein in the American forces in Iraq .

The bloody US offensive, described by law experts as amounting to genocide, came amid signs of serious cracks among the ranks of the Iraqi government.

Ongoing Fighting

After waiting in vain for Al-Sadr to show up, the group drove to the governor’s headquarters as fighting raged in the cemetery, where US gunship helicopters fired on fighters who responded by firing mortars and machine guns at US and Iraqi government forces.

Sporadic clashes resumed in the flashpoint town early Wednesday after a relatively quite night.

Scattered gunshots and mortar fire broke the silence around the revered Imam Ali shrine, the vast cemetery and the 1920 Revolution Square from around 6:00 am (0200 GMT), reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

US troops supported by Iraqi security forces have effectively sealed off An-Najaf’s historic Old City, trapping Sadr’s Mahdi Army inside.