Militiamen Agree To Disarm
Shiite militiamen loyal to Muqtada al-Sadr agreed Saturday to begin handing in weapons, a significant step toward restoring order in Baghdad's teeming Sadr City district as the government struggles to curb Iraq's more widespread Sunni insurgency.
In a sign of persistent Sunni unrest, clashes broke out west of the capital Saturday as the search continued for the body of British hostage Kenneth Bigley, decapitated by his abductors — reportedly after a failed escape attempt.
Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's interim government is trying to rein in insurgent enclaves before legislative elections in January. U.S. and Iraqi officials have been negotiating for weeks with tribal and religious leaders in key rebel strongholds. But if talks fail, they say they are prepared to use force.
A senior aide to al-Sadr said the Mahdi Army militia will begin turning in medium and heavy weapons at three police stations Monday in an operation that is expected to last five days.
As a confidence-building measure, the government will suspending raids against al-Sadr's followers in the capital's sprawling northeastern Sadr City slum, which has seen weeks of clashes with U.S. and Iraqi forces, according to the aide, Ali Smeisem.
In other developments:
Al-Sadr's movement is still pressing for guarantees that the government will stop pursuing its members, release the cleric's detained followers and compensate residents for losses suffered during the fighting. But Smeisem said it is willing to wait for a deal on those points.
So far, al-Sadr has not pledged to disband his militia, a key U.S. and Iraqi government demand. But American and Iraqi authorities are eager to end the clashes in the Shiite stronghold so they can concentrate on suppressing the more potent Sunni insurgency.
On that front, government and tribal negotiators have reported progress in talks aimed at restoring Iraqi state control over insurgent bastion Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad. The city, believed to be a stronghold of Iraq's most feared terror group, Tawhid and Jihad, has been subject to weeks of U.S. airstrikes.
Insurgents fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a U.S. patrol near Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad, disabling a Humvee in an area that had become comparatively peaceful in recent months, the military said. There were no casualties.
South of Baghdad, about 20 masked insurgents pulled up in front of the local municipal council in four cars, asked employees to leave and then blew up the building. No casualties were reported in the incident in Iskandariyah, 30 miles south of the capital.
U.S. and Iraqi forces launched an operation south of Baghdad this week to clear out pockets of insurgents in an area notorious for ambushes and kidnappings.
At least 36 people have been killed so far in the towns of Jurf al-Sakhar, Latifiya and Haswa, said police Capt. Hadi Hatif. The operation also netted 72 suspected insurgents, including Iranians, Syrians and Jordanians, he said. Some of those arrested were found with explosives, maps, and lists of Iraqi officials, scientist and doctors.
Seven Iraqi National Guard members were wounded, he said.
Meanwhile, authorities searched for Bigley, whose grisly beheading was recorded on footage delivered Friday to Abu Dhabi TV.
A U.S. official in Washington said there were credible reports that Bigley had tried to escape with the help of one of his captors before he was killed. There was no word on the fate of his accomplice.
A masked gunman claiming to be familiar with Bigley's kidnappers told The Associated Press that the hostage managed to elude his 10 guards on Thursday. He was located the next morning in a deserted area, carrying a gun, the man said. It was not immediately clear how Bigley would have obtained the weapon.
Bigley was killed soon after, the gunman said. He provided no further details. Officials in Baghdad refused to comment on the report.
Bigley, 62, was seized with two American colleagues from their homes in an upscale Baghdad neighborhood Sept. 16. The two Americans, Eugene Armstrong, 52, and Jack Hensley, 48, were beheaded days later.
Tawhid and Jihad, lead by Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for the abductions and killings. The kidnappers released two videos of Bigley tearfully begging for help from British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Friday that messages were exchanged with Bigley's kidnappers through an intermediary in the days just before he was killed. But he said the militants refused to drop their demand for the release of all female prisoners — even though Britain has no women in custody in Iraq.
Seif al-Islam, son of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, said he also tried to intercede with Bigley's kidnappers. But the British government asked him to freeze his efforts 48 hours before Bigley's death because it was working through other mediators, according to a foundation he runs.
More than 150 foreigners have been kidnapped in Iraq, some for ransom and others as leverage against the United States and its allies. Bigley was at least the 28th to be killed.