World

Iran Envoy Slain In Iraq

April 15, 2004 / 10:38 AM EDT / CBS/AP

Gunmen killed a high-ranking Iranian diplomat in Baghdad Thursday, but it was unclear whether the killing was linked to Iranian efforts to mediate between U.S. forces and a radical Shiite cleric.

Khalil Naimi, the first secretary of the Iranian Embassy, was shot in the head while he was in his car near the embassy, Foreign Ministry official Mohammad Nouri told The Associated Press in Tehran.

The killing came as a senior Iranian envoy visited Iraq to try to mediate an end to the U.S. standoff with radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Some 2,500 U.S. troops are massed outside the southern town of Najaf, vowing to capture al-Sadr, located at his office next to the city's Imam Ali Shrine — the holiest Shiite site in the world.

In Fallujah, the top Marine commander warned that the halt in offensive operations that the Marines have maintained since Friday may not last much longer in the face of persistent guerrilla attacks, despite a truce insurgents called on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Iraqi militants executed an Italian hostage, the first captive known to have been killed among at least 22 foreigners kidnapped during Iraq's spasm of violence this month. Three Japanese hostages were released.

Two soldiers were killed Wednesday. At least 89 U.S. soldiers have been killed this month — making it the deadliest month for Americans ever in Iraq. More than 900 Iraqis have also been killed. Since the war began, 688 U.S. troops have died.

In other developments:

Top U.S. military commanders have asked for "more capabilities" in Iraq, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says. About 21,000 American soldiers have been told that they will remain in Iraq for another three months instead of coming home this month, defense officials said Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

A car bomb exploded near a U.S. patrol outside Baqouba on Thursday, and witnessed reported U.S. casualties. There was no immediate comment from the U.S. military.

In the western town of Habbaniyah, Marines raided a suspected bomb factory Wednesday, killing 16 suspected insurgents and capturing 10, a Marine spokesman said.

U.S. troops in Iraq tell the General Accounting Office that delays in delivery of letters from home are hurting troop morale "as mail was often their only link with family and friends at home."

Holding American flags and pictures of fallen loved ones, military families and veterans marched in Washington, urging President Bush on Wednesday to end the war in Iraq.

The U.S. military has accused Arabic television station al Jazeera of slanted reporting on civilian deaths, the Guardian newspaper reports. The channel said the military is putting "unjustified pressure on the media."

In a tape, a man who identified himself as al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden offered a "truce" to European countries that do not attack Muslims, saying it would begin when their soldiers leave Islamic nations.

In an effort to keep the political process moving despite the violence, a top U.N. envoy proposed that an Iraq caretaker government take power when U.S. officials hand over sovereignty on June 31.

Lakhdar Ibrahimi's plan would dump the current Governing Council and set up an executive made of highly respected Iraqis, including a prime minister, president and two vice presidents.

The plan, for the first time, would also give the United Nations a role in picking the new government, in contrast to the entirely U.S.-picked Governing Council, which many Iraqis dismiss as lackeys of Washington.

An Iranian delegation, headed by senior Iranian Foreign Ministry official Hussein Sedeqi, met Wednesday evening with Massoud Barzani, current president of the Iraqi Governing Council.

The talks were "positive" and the Iranians expressed their willingness to mediate the U.S. dispute with al-Sadr, said council member Mahmoud Othman. The Iranians headed to Najaf on Thursday, an al-Sadr aide said.

A U.S. assault into Najaf could enflame Iraq's Shiite majority and push them closer to al-Sadr, whose militia launched a bloody uprising last week against coalition forces across the south. It would also fan anti-American sentiment in Shiite communities around the world, including mostly-Shiite Iran.

Al-Sadr militiamen in Najaf appeared to be preparing for a fight, moving into buildings and onto rooftops on Najaf's outskirts, said Col. Dana J.H. Pittard, head of the U.S. troops amassed outside the city, ready to move in against al-Sadr.

"Najaf is a holy place," said Kaysal Hazali, spokesman for al-Sadr. "If they attack it, God knows the results: It is not going to be good for the occupation."

Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, persuaded al-Sadr to drop defiant demands he had put forward to Iraqi politicians currently mediating the standoff. Among other things, al-Sadr demanded U.S. troops withdraw from all Iraqi cities, a condition the U.S. military was unlikely to accept.

In the besieged city of Fallujah, U.S. warplanes struck guerrillas early Thursday, the latest in nightly fighting that has strained a four-day truce called to allow Iraqi negotiators to try to end the violence.

Marines and insurgents have been digging into their positions in houses inside the city, preparing for the possible complete collapse of the cease-fire. Insurgents were launching increasingly sophisticated attacks on Marine positions at night, Marine commanders said.

A senior U.S. official in Baghdad said up to 2,000 insurgents are thought to be holed up in the city, west of the capital.

"I don't forecast that this stalemate will go on for long," said Maj. Gen. James N. Mattis, commander of the U.S. military's 1st Marine Division. "It's hard to have a cease-fire when they maneuver against us, they fire at us."

The three Japanese hostages were released Thursday in Iraq and are in good health, with the pan-Arab television station Al-Jazeera showing them sitting on a sofa in a Baghdad office. One of the hostages, in tears, was comforted by a cleric and others.