24 April 2004	Saturday	03 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

KUFA, April 23: Shia leader Moqtada Sadr on Friday threatened the US-led forces with suicide attacks if it launched offensive on Iraq's holy cities, while his militiamen killed a Bulgarian soldier in an ambush.

Moqtada Sadr's Mehdi army militia attacked a Bulgarian troop convoy in Karbala and sparked a clash that left 10 people wounded. In another sign of growing pressure on the occupying forces, a prominent Sunni leader in Baghdad, Sheikh Ahmad Abdel Ghafur Samarrai, warned the occupation could spark a national uprising if US forces resume their offensive on Fallujah.

Amid the worst bloodshed since last year's invasion, the US administrator for Iraq Paul Bremer went on television on Friday to try to rally the country behind US plans for its future.

He announced the disbanded Iraqi army would be largely reformed to counter the country's security crisis amid disquiet over the performance of new US-trained security forces.

"The (interim) minister of defence informs me that he intends to have a meeting with vetted senior officers from the former regime next week to discuss how best to build the new Iraqi military establishment," Mr Bremer said.

"More of these officers with honourable records - from the former army and elsewhere - will serve in the months ahead as your new army grows," said Mr Bremer. But Sadr, who the US officials have promised to capture or kill over the murder of a pro-US rival leader last year, ramped up the threat against the invaders even as US-led soldiers massed outside Najaf, where he has been holed up for the last two weeks.

"If we are forced to defend our cities, we will resort to suicide operations and we will be human time-bombs which would explode in their faces," he said. He said there were enough people prepared to carry them out. "Until now we had refused to do this, but if we are forced to do it, we will," he said in Kufa, just outside Najaf.

Brig Gen Mark Kimmitt, the deputy director of military operations, said the US troops would "respect all religious structures" in their attempt to bring Sadr before a judge. "We have all the time in the world if he wants to hole up inside that city," he told CNN.

BULGARIAN SOLDIER: The Bulgarian soldier was fatally wounded in the ambush near the Karbala city hall, while an Iranian pilgrim, four civilians and five militiamen were injured in the fighting, which lasted about 30 minutes, witnesses and hospital staff said.

The city hall in Karbala, 110kms south of Baghdad, is near the office of a religious foundation and the Al Mokhayam mosque, controlled by Sadr loyalists.

FALLUJAH: Military leaders warned time was running out for guerillas in Fallujah, 50 kilometres west of Baghdad, to hand over their heavy weapons as part of a ceasefire deal after more than two weeks of fighting.

The US-led military complained that only a small amount of "junk" had been handed in on Thursday and even less on Friday. "If they choose to reject our offer of peace we are more than prepared to continue the operation," said Brig Kimmitt.

Mediator Fuad Rawi, from the Iraqi Islamic Party, represented on the interim Governing Council, claimed that mortar launchers and rocket-propelled grenades had been handed over. "Obviously their (the US) appetite has been whetted and they want more," he said.

Iraqi authorities sharply lowered the death toll to 271 killed and 793 wounded from more than two weeks of fighting in Fallujah that followed the slaying of four US contractors on March 31, two of whom were mutilated by angry mobs. Iraqi mediators and hospital officials previously said that between 600 and 700 people died in Fallujah. Scores of US troops were also killed. -AFP