The news of Sadr's letter broke at the conference hours after Defense Minister Hazim Shalan said that the cleric had only hours to vacate the shrine in Najaf. "They have a chance," Shalan told reporters after meeting local officials in the holy city.
"In the next few hours they have to surrender themselves and their weapons. We are in the process of completing all our military preparations," he said. "We will teach them a lesson they will never forget."
U.S. soldiers fire an antitank rocket at an insurgent position near the Valley of Peace cemetery in Najaf, 90 miles south of Baghdad.
(Jim Macmillan -- AP)
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Transcript: The Post's Karl Vick will be live from Najaf to discuss peace negotiations.
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MSNBC Video: Vick Phone Interview
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Sadr's aides condemned the threat. "The statements of the so-called defense minister are not suited with what the delegation came with," Abdul Hadi Darraji, Sadr's spokesman in Baghdad, told al-Arabiya television. "There is a clear accord from the side of Sayyid Sadr. I think that the statements of the defense minister are personal statements." Sayyid is a title of respect.
Shalan had spent Tuesday closeted with senior military commanders just outside Najaf, poring over plans for military operations in the city. The plans were to be presented Thursday to the top commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Thomas F. Metz.
Overnight, one Marine was killed and another was wounded by mortar shells fired from beside the shrine into the nearby Valley of Peace cemetery, where U.S. forces continued to engage militiamen in sporadic clashes.
U.S. commanders responded by firing a 155mm howitzer toward the shells' point of origin -- closer to the mosque complex than had been previously authorized for artillery fire.
"That was a first," said Maj. Bob Pizzitola, executive officer of the 1st Battalion, 5th Regiment of the Army's 1st Cavalry Division, which is fighting in the cemetery with Marine support.
"It was closer than I thought they'd allow, but it was safe," said Maj. David Holahan of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which has been commanding the fight in Najaf.
Meanwhile, M1-A1 Abrams tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles continued to roam Najaf's old city, a district of houses and shops along narrow streets south and east of the shrine. Combat was sometimes heavy, witnesses said, as the 1st Cavalry's 7th Regiment sought to assert its presence in the quarter.
Twenty-four people were reported wounded or dead before noon, including six women and four children, said Falah Muhanna, the head of Najaf's Health Directorate.
Iraq's interim government has emphasized that any military move to push Sadr's forces out of the shrine would be led by Iraqi forces. But U.S. armor, helicopters and warplanes in recent days have ventured close to the sacred site.
"As for entering the shrine, it will be 100 percent Iraqis," Shalan said. "Our sons of the National Guards are well-trained for the breaking-in operation and it will be easy within hours."
Elsewhere in Iraq, the U.S. military announced it was deploying reinforcements to put down a rebellion near the city of Kut, southeast of Baghdad. In earlier fighting there, four civilians were killed and four injured when they were caught in crossfire between the U.S. forces and insurgents, according to a military statement.
Vick reported from Najaf.
