Iraq's interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi invited Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr to run in the country's first free elections in decades, as sporadic clashes rumbled on between US forces and his militiamen yesterday.
| I think I've run out of different ways to say "those people are crazy"... |
Extending an olive branch after US Marines and Iraqi security forces pounded Sadr's Iranian mercenaries Mehdi Army for two days in Najaf and Baghdad, Allawi invited the fiery cleric to stand for election. The prime minister's US-backed interim government is due to disband when Iraq holds poll scheduled for January 2005. "I invite Moqtada Sadr to participate in elections next year," Allawi told reporters. The prime minister said he had received "positive signals" about Sadr running but did not elaborate.
| "Yeah. If I can't overthrow the gummint, maybe I'll run for office..." |
US planes flew over Najaf throughout the day. Gunfire and mortar and rocket blasts grew less frequent by early afternoon, while an ultimatum for Sadr's militia to leave the area expired at 6 p.m. Pummeled in Sadr's spring uprising against foreign troops, hundreds of terrified Najafis have fled their homes to escape the latest fighting. The US military has said it has killed 300 insurgents in the city alone during the recent fighting — although Sadr aides insist no more than nine militiamen have died. Combined tolls from medics put the number of dead at 76 and more than 300 wounded in fighting which spread to Baghdad and other southern Shiite cities. |