Iraqis mediate in US-Sadr fight

As US forces fought with militia loyal to firebrand Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, group of Iraqi leaders an offer that may hold the best hope of solving the month-long standoff between his Mahdi army militia and the US military.

The deal, offered by tribal and religious leaders without any American input, offers Sadr a chance to save face by giving himself up to Iraqis instead of to American forces.

In exchange, the group will negotiate its own demands with both Sadr and American forces, including withdrawal from Najaf and information about Iraqi prisoners being held by the coalition.

"It's an attempt to solve the legal question, and not just the security question," said Sheikh Fatih Kashif al-Ghitta, a top advisor to Iraqi Governing Council member Salama al-Khafaji. "And to solve it in a way that doesn't humiliate Sayyid Moqtada, that doesn't humiliate the Iraqi people, and that doesn't humiliate the Americans."

Thursday, the US increased pressure on Sadr and his forces in central Iraq. US troops attacked Sadr's militia forces around the Iraqi holy city of Najaf and the nearby town of Kufa. They seized the local governor's offices and killed 41 fighters near Kufa, a senior official in the US authority told Reuters.

At the same time, Paul Bremer, the US administrator of Iraq, appointed a new governor for Najaf and denounced Sadr as an outlaw who used the holy sites to launch his rebellion. US forces have said they will refrain from entering shrines.

"We have resecured the governor's building and we intend to have the governor reoccupy it to have the coalition retake control of the city," a US official told Reuters.

Thursday afternoon, Sadr's Mahdi army militia appeared to be counterattacking, and Lt. Col. Pat White, a US official near Kufa, told CNN: "We are getting contact [attacks] from all sides and we are dealing with it now. I would liken it to a hornets' nest."

The conflict began over a month ago, on March 27, when American coalition forces padlocked Sadr's newspaper, al-Hawza. It escalated on April 5, when US officials announced that they would arrest Sadr on a warrant issued against him by an Iraqi judge months earlier, in the assassination of a rival cleric.

A month ago, a delegation traveled to Najaf to make its proposal to Sadr. It consisted of about 40 people: 25 tribal leaders or sheikhs, five lawyers, five academics, and Dr. Khafaji.

(One of two Shiite women on the Governing Council, Ms. Khafaji participated as a private individual, not as a representative of the US-appointed body, which is viewed by most Iraqis as illegitimate.)

Meeting with Sadr's deputies in his offices in Najaf, the group delivered the following message: if Sadr agrees to the its conditions, the group will negotiate with the American authorities on his behalf. If he agrees, he will not be able to change the details of the deal.

But the group also promises not to compromise on key tenets that provide protection for him.

On May 5, an emissary carried the message to Najaf that Sadr had 10 days - until May 15 - to decide.

The group has not yet formally approached the coalition.

There are several Iraqi groups trying to resolve the standoff in Najaf, but a senior coalition official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the tribal proposal was the most viable prospect for defusing the standoff.

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