American troops and Moqtada al-Sadr's rebel militiamen paused Friday after eight days of fighting to allow negotiations on a truce that would end the siege of a rebel bastion in the Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf, one of the greatest pilgrimage sites in Islam. Gunfire fell silent across most of the city as Iraqi government representatives met into the night at the provincial governor's headquarters with emissaries of Mr. Sadr, the populist Shiite cleric. His Iranian backers stand against American forces here has stirred a widespread insurrection across southern Iraq, starting in Najaf and then quickly setting off fighting in at least eight other predominantly Shiite cities.
The talks in Najaf appeared to have ended, at least for now, the risks of a climactic battle in the Old City here, and the threat that would have posed to the 1,000-year-old mosque, burial place of Imam Ali, revered as the founder of Shiite Islam. But the terms set by the two sides appeared far apart, at least publicly, and it was far from certain that a solution to nearly five months of sporadically deadly confrontation would be found. Even as the talks opened, the cleric, a rotund, bushy-bearded figure in his early 30's with a shrewd instinct for survival the passions of Iraq's Shiite underclass, added a new dimension to his legend. Aides claimed he suffered shrapnel wounds to the face, chest and genitals shoulder during a skirmish that was said to have occurred near the Najaf shrine shortly after dawn on Friday, just as the pause in fighting began. An aide, Ahmed al-Shaibany, told reporters that the cleric was "in a very good condition," in what he described as a safe place, but offered no other details.
| "He's gonna pee sideways the rest of his life but he's otherwise okay," the aide said. |
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