U.S. troops say to pull back from Najaf shrines

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L04582136.htm

NAJAF, Iraq, June 4 (Reuters) - U.S. forces said they would pull back from positions nearest to holy shrines in the Iraqi city of Najaf on Friday to help shore up a shaky truce with fighters loyal to a radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

Colonel Brad May told a CNN correspondent U.S. troops would be on hand to support Iraqi police forces taking control of key sites as part of the truce deal, but said there had been a "breakthrough" towards ending weeks of fighting.

"In the meantime the U.S. forces will pull back from the sensitive areas themselves, but we will still be in a position where we can provide the necessary response force in the event that the police should need it."

Shi'ite politicians said earlier on Friday that Sadr had agreed to withdraw his fighters from the city of Najaf within two days, as long as U.S. forces also withdrew.

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[saigon68]

1. TODAY IS FRIDAY THEIR HOLY DAY

[struggle4progress]

2. U.S. reaches another truce with rebel cleric

The rebel cleric Moktada al-Sadr and U.S. commanders hammered out a truce - for the second time - in Najaf on Friday, Iraqi officials said. Both sides promised to withdraw their soldiers from the city center and turn over security to the local police. "All the warring parties, the coalition forces and the Mahdi Army militias, should leave the two holy cities," said Najaf's governor, Adnan Zurfi, referring to Najaf and nearby Kufa. He also said the two sides "should not allow any of their members to enter again." A very similar deal was cut last month but soon collapsed into gunbattles and ambushes. A U.S. commander hailed Friday's agreement. Colonel Brad May of the U.S. Army told CNN: "I'd really classify this as a breakthrough day. What we're seeing is the governor taking control of the whole city and he now feels that he does have sufficient police forces to move into those areas that need the security."
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The Najaf deal made scant mention of the fate of Sadr. The 31-year-old Shiite cleric is accused of planning the murder of a rival imam, and Sadr's capture was one of the reasons U.S. forces started the fighting, which is estimated to have cost more than 500 lives.
<snip>

Meanwhile, Sadr has not tempered his message. On Friday, he issued a statement, read at prayer time in a Kufa mosque, blasting the new interim Iraqi government selected this week. "I do not want to have anything to do with this government," Sadr's statement said. "I don't believe any Iraqi would accept this appointment of a government by the occupier." According to the peace deal, Sadr's militia will disarm once the local police move in. The deal was supposed to take effect at 6 p.m. on Friday. However, even after the 6 p.m. deadline came and went, local reporters said several Mahdi fighters were standing around a Najaf mosque, insisting no one had told them anything about leaving.

http://www.iht.com/articles/523465.html

[bemildred]

3. This one won't work either. nt