'Final Call' for Rebel Iraqi Cleric

A building explodes during a U.S. aerial assault in Najaf, where troops have escalated operations near the shrine of Imam Ali. (Photos Jim Macmillan -- AP)

The center of the city, which normally hosts tens of thousands of religious pilgrims each day, resembled the war zone it has been for two weeks. Buildings dating back hundreds of years have collapsed without being hit, brought down by blast waves. Three hotels, the Jeilawi, the Doha and Thul Fiqar, lay largely in rubble, destroyed by U.S. fire. In the late afternoon, clouds the color of concrete powder rose when a Marine Harrier jump jet dropped a pair of bombs on a target east of the shrine.

Allawi and U.S. commanders said the fighting was not the commencement of a final assault on the shrine but the continuation of a multi-day effort to prepare for the operation by targeting militiamen in neighborhoods near the shrine. "Shaping the battlefield," one Army commander said, describing the slow, armored nudge that left the 7th Cavalry Regiment in a rough semicircle around the shrine, with Army and Marines holding positions in the vast cemetery to the north.

Much of the most intense fighting overnight was not part of any offensive operations but cover fire for a convoy that had gotten mired in a dry lake bed west of the shrine. Two AC-130 gunships unleashed cannon fire and heavy machine-gun fire at Mahdi Army positions firing on troops.

With Sadr's aides and spokesmen offering conflicting statements about the cleric's willingness to defuse the crisis, Allawi said he wanted a clear statement from Sadr. "We would like for him to declare his intentions," Allawi said at the news conference. "What is his position? We only have heard from some people who work with him. We haven't heard from him directly. We would like to hear a final position before we move to the next phase."

But Allawi's government also has issued contradictory signals about its strategy. On Thursday morning, Allawi's minister of state, Qasim Dawood, visited Najaf and warned that Sadr faced an attack within hours if he and his followers did not vacate the shrine. Later in the day, the interim prime minister did not issue a deadline but suggested he would give Sadr some time to respond. "We need to have a solution soon," Allawi said.

On Monday, a national conference of Iraqi leaders called on Sadr to dissolve his militia, vacate the shrine and join in the Iraqi political process. The following day, the conference sent an eight-member delegation to Najaf to meet with the cleric, but he failed to see them. But on Wednesday, Sadr signaled he would accept the demands of the conference, and he asked for further negotiations with Iraq's interim government to work out details, according to a letter from Sadr's office that was delivered to the conference.

Allawi has ruled out any negotiations. On Thursday morning, Dawood articulated the government's conditions to avert military action. They include demands to disband the militia and leave the shrine, but they also require the militiamen to surrender their weapons to government security forces, release people detained by the Mahdi Army and identify people who have been executed by the militia.

"The military action has become imminent," Dawood told reporters. "If these conditions are not met, then the military solution will prevail."

Government officials sought to play down differences between the government's demands and those of the conference, saying the thrust of both sets of conditions is the same and that the government's list provides less wiggle room for Sadr.

But Sadr's aides rejected the government demands. In a telephone interview Thursday, Sadr's spokesman, Ahmed Shaibani, said Sadr would deal only with the conference representing the "opinion of the people" and not with the government.

Like Allawi, the Iraqi political conference emissary, Hussein Mohammed Hadi Sadr, stressed Thursday the need to hear "personally" from Sadr. Earlier Thursday, U.S. and Iraqi officials had expressed skepticism about whether Sadr would follow through with the pledge to disband his militia.

"I would be very cautious in accepting it as face value," said a senior diplomat from a nation with forces in Iraq. "A lot of people are scratching their heads and wondering whether the letter sent to the conference [by Sadr] meant anything and, if so, what it meant."

Correspondent Karl Vick in Najaf contributed to this report.