Militia Withdraws At Key Iraqi Sites

Military officials said some of the additional troops would be used to address a problem that plagued U.S. forces during the invasion of Iraq last year: attacks on supply convoys. Over the past week, insurgents have repeatedly attacked military and commercial trucks and passenger vehicles on two major highways that run west and south from Baghdad, slowing the movement of troops and supplies and rendering both roads off-limits to most foreigners, U.S. military commanders said Monday. In an attack Sunday, a Romanian private security guard was killed and another was wounded in an ambush on a convoy near Baghdad, the Romanian Foreign Ministry said.

The two highways provide the major links to the densely populated agricultural zone in the south and to Fallujah and Ramadi to the west. In the past week, armed bands of as many as 60 men have ambushed fuel convoys, kidnapped foreign civilians and shot down aircraft.

Military commanders "remain very concerned" about the two motorways and have declared them dangerous but not impassable, Kimmitt said. He said it could take several weeks before the roads were completely safe for traffic.

The attacks have led many truck drivers working for Kellogg Brown & Root and other private contractors to refuse to drive, delaying the delivery of much-needed supplies to troops, military officials said. Private contractors are responsible for providing about half the military's supplies in Iraq, the officials said.

A spokesman for the Army Field Support Command, Dan Carlson, confirmed that there have "been some delays" in supply lines "due to the recent hostilities." He said the Army was assessing their impact.

The U.S. administrator of Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, met with members of the Governing Council to discuss the violence of the past week. Several council members said afterward that they hoped to negotiate an end to the violence in Fallujah and the confrontation with Sadr's militia.

Although a Governing Council delegation met with local leaders in Fallujah on Sunday and Monday, it was not clear whether city officials have enough sway to persuade the insurgents to lay down their arms. Council members said people involved in the killing and mutilation of four American security contractors in the city on March 31 must be handed over as a condition of a peace deal.

To broker a deal with Sadr, Shiite council members said attempts to arrest and try the cleric should be postponed until after June 30. If presented with such an offer, they said, Sadr might be willing to dissolve his militia. They said Sadr already had offered in talks with one member to transform the Mahdi Army into a "civil organization."

Delaying legal proceedings "will be more legitimate in the eyes of Iraqis," said one council member, Ahmed Barak. "It will be more acceptable."

With U.S. troops near Najaf, Barak said, time was running out to strike a deal. He said if soldiers entered the city, which is regarded as one of the most sacred places for Shiites, "it would be a disaster."

Staff writer Jackie Spinner in Washington, special correspondent Saad Sarhan in Najaf and correspondent Edward Cody in Beijing contributed to this report.