NAJAF, Iraq – Protected by about 100 guards, Iraq interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi visited the war-shattered city of Najaf on Sunday, and threatened to forcibly remove armed fighters if they did not leave voluntarily.
Allawi did not specifically mention Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr or his fighters, the Mahdi Army, but said he would not negotiate with any militia. The Mahdi Army has battled U.S. and Iraqi forces in intense clashes for four days.
Allawi’s delegation did not meet with al-Sadr, and the cleric’s aides rejected his demands.
Hours later, U.S. helicopter gunships pounded the massive Najaf cemetery, a militant hideout and the scene of much of the fighting, witnesses said.
Scattered attacks across the country Sunday killed at least 19 Iraqis and wounded dozens of others, including four U.S. soldiers. A U.S. soldier also died Saturday in “a noncombat related incident,” the military said Sunday.
The interim government also announced Sunday that it would reinstate the death penalty, which had been banned under the U.S.-led occupation, as part of an effort to quell the ongoing insurgency.
“Today is the most difficult day in my career because I am supposed to care for and guard human life,” said Bakhtiar Amin, Iraq’s human rights minister. “But the deteriorating security situation, the widespread armed attacks on civilian workers and foreign workers, and the increasing cross-border drug trade” forced the government to act, Amin said.
It was unclear how the new death penalty law would affect deposed leader Saddam Hussein, currently awaiting trial on war crimes charges.
Meanwhile, a group calling itself the Islamic Army in Iraq issued a videotape saying that it had kidnapped an Iranian diplomat, and showing a passport and business card identifying him as Faridoun Jihani. The Iranian Embassy confirmed Jahani had disappeared Wednesday while traveling from Baghdad to Karbala.
Also Sunday, a U.S. Army OH-58 observation helicopter made an emergency landing in Baghdad near the Sadr City neighborhood after being attacked, the U.S. military said. No casualties were reported.
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