Associated Press
7:07 AM PDT, August 29, 2004
BAGHDAD, Iraq —
Iraqi tribal leaders, Shiite politicians, government officials and U.S.
military officers agreed Sunday to a one-day truce for peace talks to end
violence in the Baghdad's Sadr City slum, a day after 10 people died in fighting
there, Iraqi officials said.
Meanwhile, violence continued in other
areas of the country Sunday. Clashes between U.S. forces and insurgents in the
northern city of Mosul left two dead and 34 injured, according to the U.S.
military. Saboteurs in southern Iraq blew up a cluster of oil export pipelines,
further reducing exports vital to Iraqi reconstruction.
The new oil
attack -- at least the third significant sabotage of oil pipelines in four days
-- shrunk exports from southern Iraq to 500,000 barrels a day, less than a third
of the normal average, an official with the South Oil company said.
Sadr City, a sprawling Shiite district of eastern Baghdad, has been the
scene of repeated clashes between militiamen loyal to radical cleric Muqtada
al-Sadr and U.S. forces i n the 16 months since the fall of Saddam Hussein, but
the violence intensified in recent weeks as fighting in Najaf that erupted Aug.
5 spread to Shiite communities across the country.
Despite the apparent
resolution of the Najaf crisis on Friday, the fighting continued in Baghdad, as
al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militiamen, armed with rifles and mortars, fought with U.S.
forces.
Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi blamed the continuing
violence on renegade al-Sadr followers who do not want to honor the peace deal
the cleric agreed to in Najaf.
"I believe there are some people who are
disobeying Muqtada al-Sadr's orders" to stop fighting, he told Al-Iraqiyah
television on Saturday.
On Sunday, the head of the tribal negotiating
team, Naim al-Bakhati, told reporters that all sides had agreed that damaged
areas in Sadr City be rebuilt, U.S. troops withdraw from the area except for
normal patrols and that Iraqi police be allowed to enter the slum.
But,
"there was no agreement on the Mahdi Army handing over their weapons,"
al-Bakhati said, adding that talks would resume in the afternoon to try to
resolve that matter.
All sides agreed to observe a one-day truce until
Monday morning to give the Iraqi government time to discuss the results of the
meeting, said Col. Maarouf Moussa Omran, Sadr City's police chief.
Youssef al-Nassiri, an official with al-Sadr's group, said they will
meet with Iraqi government officials later Sunday. He did not elaborate.
Sadr City remained relatively peaceful Sunday as the talks continued.
The fighting Saturday killed 10 people and wounded 126, said Saad al-Amili, a
Health Ministry official.
Meanwhile, France scrambled to respond to the
kidnapping of two French journalists by Islamic militants in Iraq, who demanded
Paris overturn a ban on students wearing Islamic head scarfs in public schools.
That ban goes into effect Wednesday.
Al-Jazeera television showed a
video Saturday from a group calling itself the Islamic Army i n Iraq purportedly
showing Christian Chesnot of Radio France-Internationale, or RFI, and Georges
Malbrunot of Le Figaro newspaper and RTL radio. The men had not been in touch
with their employers since Aug. 19, the French Foreign Ministry said last week.
In the video, one of the men said in broken Arabic, "We are being held
by the Islamic Army in Iraq." The second hostage spoke French and said they
were being treated well.
The group demanded the law be rescinded in 48
hours, Al-Jazeera reported. The TV station did not say whether there was an
ultimatum.
On Sunday, French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin called
together the interior, foreign affairs and communication ministers to coordinate
the government's response. Raffarin also was to discuss the situation with
President Jacques Chirac.
Also Sunday, in the northern city of Mosul,
insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades from a mosque at U.S. troops in the
early morning, sparking clashes that left two dead and 34 wounded, the military
said.
Army Capt. Angela Bowman said patrolling U.S. forces were
attacked twice before dawn near Tal Afar, about 30 miles west of Mosul.
Soldiers returned fire during both assaults, killing two of the attackers, she
said. No U.S. casualties were reported.
Provincial health chief Rabie
Yasin al-Khalil said 32 people were injured in the clashes.
Citing a
doctor at a hospital in Tal Afar, the U.S. military said 34 civilians were
wounded, 26 of them women and children, "by flying debris and broken glass
during the attacks on multinational forces. Many civilians were sleeping on
their rooftops to escape the summer heat."
The military said troubles
began at 3 a.m. when insurgents fired eight rocket-propelled grenades at a
passing U.S. patrol. Seven of the RPG rounds were fired from a nearby mosque,
the military said in a statement. Guerrillas attacked again three hours later,
also from the mosque, and U.S. troops fired back, killing two assailants, the
statement said.
Later Sunday, assailants blew up a cluster of export
pipelines in al-Radgha, about 30 miles southwest of Basra, an official at the
state-run South Oil Co. said on condition of anonymity. The pipelines, which
connect the Rumeila oilfields with export storage tanks in the Faw peninsula,
was ablaze after the attack and emergency workers were struggling to put the
fire out, the official said.
If the fire is not put out and maintenance
on other sabotaged lines not completed rapidly, exports could be halted
entirely, a second official with the company said on condition of anonymity.
Late Friday, saboteurs blew up another pipeline in the West Qurna
oilfields, about 90 miles north of Basra. Another attack, on Thursday, had
reduced exports from the south to 900,000 barrels per day.