US troops circle Kufa for Sadr

Shi'ite guerrillas clashed with US troops near Kufa on Friday as their leader, rebel cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr, defied demands that he disband ...

Shi’ite guerrillas clashed with US troops near Kufa on Friday as their leader, rebel cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr, defied demands that he disband his militia to spare Iraq’s shrine cities from bloodshed.

A Syrian-born Canadian aid worker kidnapped on April 8 was brought to Sadr’s office in Najaf and set free after the fiery cleric urged the release of foreigners not involved in the US-led occupation. Sadr, who launched a Shi’ite uprising this month against the US-led occupation of Iraq, is holed up in Najaf with US forces poised outside vowing to kill or capture him. The Czech Foreign Ministry said three Czech journalists were also freed.

Blasts shook Kufa, where Sadr was preaching in the main mosque, and his militiamen said they ambushed a US convoy. Defiant at Friday prayers, Sadr said he would not disband his militia under any circumstances ‘‘because I did not create it on my own but with the cooperation of the Iraqi people’’.

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Later in the day, US President George W. Bush and Britain’s Prime Minister Tony Blair reaffirmed their commitment to transfer sovereignty to Iraqis on June 30, while endorsing UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi’s plan for a government in the war-torn country.

Meanwhile, an Iraqi official who participated in talks between rebels and the US in Falluja said he was ‘‘optimistic’’ a comprehensive ceasefire could be reached in the Sunni stronghold.

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