12 May 2004	Wednesday	21 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

MADRID, May 11: Spanish troops rejected a US request for a major offensive against the militia in Najaf before they pulled out of Iraq last month, a Spanish general in the US-led occupation force was quoted as saying on Tuesday.

Newspapers quoted Gen Jose Enrique de Ayala as telling senior US commanders: "Our mandate is not to be an offensive force but to contribute to stabilization and reconstruction, and in any case we do not have the means to launch a large-scale offensive."

Gen Ayala met a small group of journalists including reporters for the dailies El Pais, El Mundo and ABC who accompanied Defence Minister Jose Bono on a one-day surprise visit to Iraq on Sunday.

He said that in early April, US commanders asked the 200 Spanish troops then in Najaf to launch an offensive to capture Moqtada Sadr. The last Spanish combat forces left Iraq on April 28, two weeks after the new government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero took office.

Moqtada Sadr ordered his militiamen not to attack the departing Spaniards as they withdrew from Najaf. On his return to Madrid on Monday, Mr Bono told a news conference that Spain had "categorically refused to hand over a certain religious leader, dead or alive, as it was asked to do at one time".

Gen Ayala described the Spanish troops in Iraq as "speechless witnesses to a conflict which we did not understand or approve". Several hundred Spanish troops are still in Iraq. -AFP