Iraqi officials and aides to a radical Shiite cleric were trying to negotiate an end to nine days of fighting in the holy city of Najaf yesterday after US forces suspended an offensive against Moqtada al-Sadr's militia, officials said. Aides said al-Sadr had been injured by shrapnel, though Iraqi officials disputed that.
In the southern city of Basra, gunmen seized a British journalist, identified as James Brandon, from a hotel where he was staying late Thursday night, police said Friday. The kidnappers, almost certainly Shiite, threatened to kill him in 24 hours unless coalition forces withdraw from Najaf, though it wasn't clear when that deadline would expire.
PHOTO: AP
The kidnappers later freed their captive after he was brought to al-Sadr's local office.
"I'm OK, I'm recovering," he told AP in a telephone interview. "I've been released thanks to [al-Sadr's] Mahdi Army, because they intervened and negotiated with the kidnappers."
With the talks ongoing, the US military said yesterday that it had suspended offensive operations against al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia, who are holed up the city's vast cemetery and the Imam Ali shrine, one of the holiest sites to Shiite Muslims.
"We are allowed to engage the enemy only in self defense and long enough to break contact," said Major Bob Pizzitola, executive officer for the 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment of the 1st Cavalry Division. "That was a blanket order for everybody."
Najaf Governor Adnan al-Zurufi said the talks were between Iraqi government officials and al-Sadr's representatives. National Security Adviser Mouwaffaq al-Rubaie traveled to Najaf on Thursday and Defense Minister Hazem Shalan joined him yesterday to participate in the talks, Iraqi officials said. US officials were not involved in the talks, al-Zurufi said.
Despite the talks, the US military said it was still maintaining a cordon around the shrine, the cemetery and Najaf's old city, where the militants had taken refuge, Pizzitola said.
Al-Sadr, who has led an uprising against coalition troops for more than a week in the holy city, was hit by shrapnel in the chest and twice in a leg as he met with members of his Mahdi Army militia near the Imam Ali shrine early Friday, said aide Haider al-Tousi.
Another of al-Sadr's spokesmen said the cleric's condition was stable. He may be holed up in the compound housing the revered shrine, along with his loyalists, while one aide, Haider al-Tousi, said he was moved to an unknown destination.
The Iraqi Interior Ministry said al-Sadr was not injured and had been involved in the negotiations since yesterday morning. Reports about his injury are "an attempt to incite others aiming at escalating the situation ... and spreading chaos," the ministry said in a statement.
Al-Sadr urged his followers to remain calm.
"We got a letter from him saying `Be steadfast and behave rationally, don't surrender to your emotions,'" Aws al-Khafaji, from al-Sadr's office in the southern town of Nasiriyah, told Al-Jazeera television.
In Basra, gunmen abducted the British journalist from the Diafa Hotel Thursday night, police Captain Hashem Abdullah said yesterday.
Hotel staff showed a check-in form purportedly filled out by the man. On the form, he identified himself as James Andrew Brandon, 23, working for the Sunday Telegraph. It said he checked in on Wednesday.
A video released yesterday showed a man who identified himself as Brandon. He stood bare-chested with a bandage on his head.
The "Telegraph, that's my paper," he said, turning to a masked captor.
"I'm a journalist. I just write about what's happening in Iraq," he said.
Ahmed al-Khalisy, head of al-Sadr's office in Basra, had condemned the kidnapping yesterday and had called on the kidnappers to release him immediately.
The video was given to AP Television News after a freelance cameraman was taken to the location where he's believed to be held.
"James Brandon was in Basra filing material for this Sunday's newspaper amongst other projects," Sunday Telegraph Deputy Editor Matthew d'Ancona said."
Thousands of al-Sadr supporters, including police officers, demonstrated yesterday outside Baghdad's Green Zone enclave, which houses the US Embassy.
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