BAGHDAD, April 12: The commander of US ground forces in Iraq said on Monday the occupation forces wanted Shia radical leader Moqtada al Sadr dead or alive, dismissing notions that his militia's control of Najaf was a widespread uprising by the Shias.
"The mission of the US forces is to kill or capture Moqtada al Sadr," Lt Gen Ricardo Sanchez said in a video conference from Baghdad with reporters at the Pentagon. Gen Sanchez acknowledged Sadr's followers had "some presence" in Karbala and still controlled Najaf.
He said US forces were on the outskirts of Najaf, ready to attack, but they had refrained so far out of respect for Shia beliefs. Gen John Abizaid, the chief of Centcom, said in the same conference Moqtada Sadr was being isolated by fellow Shias.
"Moqtada al Sadr is isolating himself," the commander said. "This was not by any stretch of the imagination an uprising." Gen Sanchez's statement contrasted with one from an official of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq that US officials were seeking a truce with Moqtada Sadr.
Mohsen al Hakim, son of SCIRI chief Abdel Aziz al Hakim, said in Tehran that negotiations were being held in Najaf with the firebrand and that SCIRI was acting as go-between. In Fallujah, a shaky truce between US Marines and guerillas held on Monday after further talks to calm Iraq's bloodiest fighting since the fall of Saddam Hussein.
HOSTAGES: The US military said two of its soldiers and seven American contractors were missing in Iraq, where seven Chinese were the latest addition to the list of hostages. The Chinese were however released on Monday night. Two Czech journalists also went missing on Monday.
The American contractors, who worked for US company Kellogg, Brown & Root, went missing after an attack on a fuel convoy just west of Baghdad on Friday. A photographer saw at least nine bodies after the attack. An American seized in the ambush told a television crew that witnessed his abduction he was the only survivor.
PULLBACK IN FALLUJAH: Despite some overnight clashes in Fallujah, Iraqi mediators said they had secured an extension to a truce that gave the town some respite at the weekend. Mohammed Qubaisi, of the Iraqi Islamic Party, said more talks were expected on Tuesday.
Late in the night, US forces made a partial troop pullback in the flashpoint city as a goodwill gesture. "There has been a partial pullback of troops, coalition troops, from the city as a goodwill gesture," Fuad Rawi, senior member of the Iraqi Islamic Party, which was leading negotiations, said.
CASUALTIES: The US military said on Monday it had lost about 70 dead and claimed killing about 10 times that number of guerillas this month. The occupation forces had lost 89 troops in action in the three-week invasion last year. At least 474 US troops have been killed in combat since the invasion began.
With President George Bush seeking re-election in November and Iraq high on the campaign agenda, the US-led administration in Baghdad said it was vital to defeat guerillas before the planned handover of power to Iraqis on June 30.
"It is critical that we cleanse the Iraqi body politic of the poison that remains after 35 years of Saddam Hussein's totalitarian rule," said spokesman Dan Senor. "We must confront these forces now. The task will only become more difficult down the road," said Dan Senor.
Brig Gen Mark Kimmitt of the US Army said US Marines were ready to "complete the destruction of enemy forces" in Fallujah unless political negotiations produced results. Each side blames the other for breaking the informal truce.
Brig Kimmitt had no word on civilian deaths in what has been Iraq's most violent period since Saddam Hussein was ousted. Rafa Hayad al Issawi, director of Fallujah's main hospital, said he believed more than 600 Iraqis had been killed in the town.
The Marines attacked rebels in Fallujah last week in response to the murder and mutilation of four American private security guards ambushed in the town on March 31.
Brig Kimmitt said occupation forces had deployed "a significant amount of combat power" to secure roads west and south of Baghdad. But guerillas struck again, setting a US military truck ablaze on the road to Baghdad airport.
Many Iraqis, including some members of the Governing Council, have been shocked at the ferocity of last week's violence in Fallujah. Civilians fleeing the city said they were haunted by the violence.
"I could see many bodies in the streets. Hundreds were lying in the street. Relatives were too scared to get them," said Samir Rabee, who escaped Fallujah with relatives and eight other families in the back of a refrigeration truck. In reprisal, guerillas have kidnapped an unknown number of foreigners.
12 HOSTAGES FREED: Mohsen Abdel Hamid, a member of the Governing Council, said 12 hostages had been freed after the Association of Muslim Clerics issued an edict condemning hostage-taking. He did not give the nationalities of those he said had been released.
He said the association had been in talks to secure freedom for remaining hostages. "We hope today the rest will be released, God willing," Mohsen Hamid said. The captors of the three Japanese have threatened to kill them if Japanese forces are not withdrawn from Iraq.
Several foreigners have been killed, including a Romanian private security guard who died in an ambush near Baghdad on Sunday. The Romanian foreign ministry said one of his colleagues was wounded in the attack. -Reuters/AFP
