From the AFP via The Australian :

Nepal said it could not immediately confirm the militants' claim to have beheaded the hostages.

”We have not yet received any information on this,” foreign ministry spokesman Nabin Bahadur Shrestha told AFP.

A statement posted on an Islamist website by the Army of Ansar al-Sunna was accompanied by pictures of what was claimed to be the bodies of the hostages, one of whom was apparently beheaded while the rest were shot.

The 12 were last shown in a videotape on Saturday reading a statement saying they had been misled into working in Iraq by “American lies”.

Nepal's ambassadors to Pakistan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, speaking to media in the kingdom, had expressed hope in recent days that the hostages would be freed after the country stressed it was not part of the US-led coalition in Iraq.
[…]
Ramesh Khadka's father, Jit Bahadur Khadka, earlier said the family had taken a loan of more than $US2000 ($2868) for his son's trip in the belief he would be a cook in Jordan.

The sum is a fortune in Nepal, one of the world's poorest countries.

The Jordanian employment agency Morning Star has said that the Nepalese headed to Iraq for work hoping to earn more money.

Story on Al Jazeera.

From the AFP via The Australian :

French President Jacques Chirac renewed his appeal here today for the release of two French journalists held hostage in Iraq.

The French leader issued the appeal at a news conference following talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

Mr Chirac's appeal came as French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier was in Amman to solicit Jordan's help in securing the release of the two journalists who were kidnapped by a Sunni Muslim group calling itself the Islamic Army of Iraq.

The group has demanded that France rescind a controversial law due to go into effect this week banning the wearing of Muslim headscarves and other outwards signs of religious affiliation in French public schools.

AP: Mahdi Army Members Willing to Fight Again

Since his Shiite militia put down its weapons and ended its uprising in Najaf last week, Mahdi Abdul Sahib has slept in a different house every night, hiding from revenge-seeking residents. And yet the 25-year-old says he would fight again.

Aides of rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Monday called on his Shiite followers across Iraq to observe a unilateral cease-fire and said the cleric was considering forming a political movement.

But despite the Najaf peace deal and Monday's cease-fire call, al-Sadr's militia is still largely intact and armed, and many worry that its fighters, like Abdul Sahib, are ready to fight another day.

“The situation is still not safe,” said Police Lt. Col. Flayeh Abdul Hassan, a senior police official in this Shiite southern holy city. “If it weren't for the truce, they would have been destroyed … it's a golden opportunity for them.”

JERUSALEM POST: Al-Jazeera calls for release of French hostages

“Within the context of our position, we believe that the journalists currently held hostage should be immediately released wherever they are, be it in Iraq, where two French hostages are held, or anywhere else in the world.”

…

“Al-Jazeera Channel wishes to re-emphasize the right of journalists and other members of the media corps to pursue their profession freely, safely and without undue restriction everywhere in the world, particularly in war and conflict zones. Al-Jazeera demands the immediate release of all journalists held hostage so they can carry out their noble duty and bring the truth to viewers, readers and listeners all over the world,” the statement said.

If they get in, of course. The Australian Federal Election has been set for October 9th (The Government gets to pick any date it wants before its term expires, and the date was announced yesterday.)

From the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

Federal Opposition Leader Mark Latham has used the start of the election campaign to recommit a Labor government to bringing Australian troops home from Iraq by Christmas.

The Coalition [i.e. the Howard Government - AEB] has targeted Labor's troop withdrawal policy, saying it was made “on the run”, has damaged Australia's relationship with the United States and would leave Australian diplomats in Iraq vulnerable to attack.

But Mr Latham has told Southern Cross Radio that while Labor has always supported the United States alliance, Australian troops in Iraq should be home by the end of the year.

“Yes, out of Operation Catalyst. Our commitment is to help with the rebuilding of Iraq through the United Nations (UN) processes to ensure that we've got a good commitment there, under the coverage of the United Nations, and to help with the rebuilding of the country,” he said.

So they'll be pulled out in order to be put back in again if and when the UN gets its act together.

Mark Latham is perhaps most famous for describing George W. Bush in less than glowing terms :

“Bush himself is the most incompetent and dangerous President in living memory.”

Before rising to the post of Opposition leader, Mark Latham has also been not totally enthused about the US Alliance, and Howard's support for US policy. :

“Mr Howard and his government are just yes-men to the United States. There they are, a conga line of suckholes on the conservative side of Australian politics.”

Bush in turn has somewhat critical of Latahm's policies :

President Bush said the Opposition leader's proposal to withdraw Australian troops from Iraq by Christmas would be “disastrous for the leader of a great country like Australia”.

Australian troops in Operation Catalyst currently number over 900. Those actually in Iraq rather than Kuwait or the Gulf are mainly guards for the Australian Embassy.

From The Australian :

Attacks on oil pipelines forced all oil exports from southern Iraq to a complete halt, a senior Iraqi oil official said today.

Oil flows out of the country's key southern pipelines ceased late yesterday, an official from South Oil Co said.

The official said that exports were not likely to resume for at least one week, he said.

“Oil exports from the port of Basra have completely stopped since last night,” said the official.

The country's southern pipelines export 90 per cent of Iraq's oil. Exports out of the south normally average about 1.85 million barrels a day.

Yesterday, saboteurs blew up a cluster of pipelines in southern Iraq in what was one the latest attacks targeting the country's crucial oil industry, officials said.

The pipeline, which connects the Rumeila oilfields with export storage tanks in the Faw peninsula, was ablaze after the attack and emergency workers were struggling to put the fire out.

Welcome! Our goal at Winds of Change.NET is to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from Iraq that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused every Monday & Thursday. This briefing is brought to you by Joel Gaines of No Pundit Intended and Andrew Olmsted of Andrew Olmsted dot com.

TOP TOPICS

• Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has decided to keep U.S. troops in Najaf until he decides it is safe to turn control of the city back to local forces. How this will play in Najaf and with al-Sadr remains to be seen, as Sadr will continue to look for opportunities to save face in the wake of his perceived retreat. (Hat tip: The Agonist.)

• While most of the world's attention remains in Najaf, that is not the only trouble spot in Iraq. As this report notes, Falluja and Ramadi remain significant thorns in the side of the Coalition, with no end to the problem in sight. (Hat tip: The Agonist.)

Other Topics Today Include: Zeyad's account of the Najaf situation; Sistani's role in the deal; ex-BBC honcho sour grapes; France negotiates with terrorists; a bad time for former WMD scientists in Iraq; the Army's new Abu Ghraib report.

Read The Rest…

Note: Also published in the “Opinion Journal” and at Chrenkoff. Thanks to James Taranto for his continuing support.

Reporting from Iraq often reminds one of the old adage about the glass - in Iraq it seems to be half-empty at best; at worst, broken, with water fast sipping into the sand. The past two weeks have not been an exception. Whether covering the on-again off-again al Sadr uprising in Najaf (the glass half-full, excessively stirred), latest kidnappings (the glass missing altogether), interruptions in oil production (glass half-empty, but priced as if full), or the meeting of the Iraqi National Conference (too many half empty glasses, all clinking together), there was no escaping the continuing negativity of the mainstream media coverage.

Experts might debate exactly how much water there is in the Iraqi glass, but there is little doubt that - yet again - while the cameras and microphones were pointing towards the carnage, violence and corruption, Iraq has continued its slow and steady march out of its three-decades long nightmare into a much more normal tomorrow. Below are some of the positive developments and good news stories of the past fortnight that for most part received very little media attention. It's a pity because the story of “Iraq, the phoenix rising from the ashes” is in many ways a lot more interesting, not to say consequential, than the usual steady media diet of “Iraq, the Wild East.”

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At TCP we have sometimes quoted first-hand eyewitness reports from Coalition forces of the various battles in Iraq.

Here is only our second account from the other side, courtesy of MEMRITV, who have a transcript and downloadable recording, and online clip of the interview.

Iraqi Sheik Al-Sumide'i Tells of the Divine Spiders Sent by Allah to Assist the Muslims in the Battle of Najaf

The following are excerpts from an interview with Iraqi Sheik Mahdi Saleh Al-Sumide'i, who participated in the battle of Falluja:

Sheik Sumide'i : They [the Americans] attacked Falluja and tried to cause great damage to its residents. They destroyed mosques and homes, killed women, children, and youths, and spread corruption in Falluja. Nevertheless, we believe that Allah protects the believers, and indeed, Allah stood beside Falluja, and I'd like to mention some miracles Allah performed in Falluja. It is possible that the media does not know about them.

The first miracle that occurred in Falluja took the form of spiders that appeared in the city ; each spider larger than this chair, or about the size of this chair. The American soldiers left, holding the legs of this spider, and I too, in one of the Friday sermons, held up a spider, with all its magnitude, in front of the satellite channels and in front of the world. This spider also had thin black hair. If this hair touches the human body, within a short period of time the body becomes black or blue, and then there is an explosion in the blood cells in the human body - and the person dies.

This is one of the miracles performed in support of Falluja, and the Jihad that took place in Falluja. Despite the damage done to the American forces;

Interviewer : The people saw it, but the TV stations did not air it?

Sheik Mahdi Saleh Al-Sumide'I : The people saw it and the TV stations indeed aired it. I held the spider, and there were between 13 to 15 TV stations, including Al-Arabiya, Al-Jazeera, Al-Majd, Dubai, Abu-Dhabi and other stations, and they saw it with their own eyes.

Interviewer : According to your personal knowledge, are the casualties in Iraq of the American forces and their allies much greater than what the US admits?

Sheik Mahdi Saleh Al-Sumide'I : By Allah, I would like to say something. I swear in the name of Allah on this issue. If the American mothers, sisters, and wives - and this is a message directed at the American people - if they knew what was happening to their children in Iraq, no woman could sleep in her bed at night, and you would see women and children in the streets of America, down on their knees, throwing dirt on their heads because of what is happening to the American forces in Iraq.

Today, if a hundred Americans are killed, they say there was one casualty, and if dozens of tanks were blown up, they say one was blown up. No one will notice the losses caused to the American forces until they return to their bases - if they return, and in my opinion they will not return - but if they return, the world will see and the American people will see the number of losses.

Interviewer : Sheik, what do the Americans do with all these casualties? Some say that there are special mass graves for the mercenary forces the Americans brought to Iraq and no one is allowed to photograph them. A somebody has said, on this program, that they discovered a mass grave in the Iraqi desert and he took an Arab cameraman there, and he was told that if he films this mass grave, the Americans will kill him.

Sheik Mahdi Saleh Al-Sumide'I : This is the truth. We too followed this issue. A mass grave was created in a desert area near the Saudi boarder for the American soldiers killed. There is also a lake near Al-Sa'diya. The Americans place the casualties inside white or black bags, seal them and toss them from a plane into the lake.

From The Australian :

Shi'ite militants and US forces battled throughout the Baghdad slum of Sadr City, and a mortar barrage slammed into a busy neighbourhood in the capital in a new wave of violence that killed at least 12 people and wounded over 100 others.

US warplanes and tanks later bombarded targets yesterday in Sunni stronghold of Fallujah, and US forces exchanged gunfire with insurgents along the city's eastern outskirts and the main highway running to neighbouring Jordan, witnesses said. The fighting left at least 14 people injured, hospital officials said.
[…]
Iraqi police spread out across Najaf's devastated Old City yesterday, patrolling in vehicles and on foot and taking over checkpoints that until recently were manned by followers of rebel Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

US forces pulled back from the neighbourhood, the site of much of the fighting.

“It's a joyful thing, the armed men have left Najaf and (neighbouring) Kufa,” interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi told al-Iraqiyah television yesterday.

Around the Imam Ali Shrine - which al-Sadr fighters surrendered on Friday after weeks of using it as a stronghold - street cleaners in orange uniforms swept up debris, trash and rubble, loading it onto trucks.
[…]
“The shrine inside is cleaned up,” Minister of State Qassim Dawoud said. “We hope to open the mosque to the public within 10 days.”
[…]
Militants fired eight mortars at US troops, but all of them missed and instead hit an electricity substation, cutting power to five or six blocks of Sadr City, US Captain Brian O'Malley of the 1st Brigade Combat Team, said. US forces suffered no casualties.

The kidnapping of the two by the “Islamic Army of Iraq” has nothing to do with the war, according to Al Jazeera:

…[T]he group demanded the French government should end a ban on Muslim headscarves for the release of the captives.

The group referred to the headscarves ban as “an aggression and oppression against Islam and personal freedoms in a country alleging to be a country of democracy”.

The two journalists, identified as Christian Chesnot of Radio France Internationale and George Malbrunot of Le Figaro, had been mising since August 21.

Their captors, in a video released yesterday, gave France 48 hours to respond to their demands.

The Islamic Army of Iraq is the same group that Italian reporterEnzo Baldoni last week.

The group also earlier said it had kidnapped an Iranian diplomat and showed the man on a video tape aired by Arabic television channels. The group also reportedly killed two Pakistani captives in July.

From the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

The bodies of two Turkish hostages have been found north of the Iraqi town of Baiji, apparently shot dead, Arabic television station Al Jazeera has reported.

The station said Iraqi police had discovered the bodies thrown on the sides of a road and handed them over to the nearby hospital.

At least four Turks have been kidnapped in Iraq this month.

The reports are yet to be confirmed. From the AFP via The Australian :

The Turkish embassy in Baghdad was investigating a television report that two Turkish hostages had been killed in Iraq, but no confirmation was available so far, a senior Turkish diplomat said today.

”We are unable to confirm the killings at the moment. Our diplomats in Iraq will contact the related Iraqi authorities today and try to verify the report,” the diplomat said.

From The Australian :

US and Iraqi forces battled militants loyal to rebel Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in Iraq's capital in battles today that left three dead and 25 injured, officials said.
[…]
Earlier, US soldiers in Humvees drove through the troubled Sadr City slum with loudspeakers, demanding people stay home because coalition forces were “cleaning the area of armed men”, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene. Sporadic gunfire could be heard.
[…]
Militants fired assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades at American troops patrolling the area, said US Captain Brian O'Malley of the 1st Brigade Combat Team.

Captain O'Malley said there were no casualties among US forces.

Interior Ministry spokesman Colonel Adnan Abdul-Rahman said Iraqi National Guard troops were fighting alongside US soldiers in the skirmishes…

From the AFP via The Australian :

Five people were killed and 32 wounded, including women and children, during US air strikes on the Sunni Muslim flashpoint city of Fallujah, medical sources said today.

The bodies and wounded were brought in following the overnight bombing in the northeastern Al-Askari district and around the western perimeter of the city, the sources said.

“A vehicle-mounted weapon system opened fire on one of our air assets and that system was taken out with a missile. It was then strafed with guns from the air at about 8.30pm (2.30am Saturday AEST),” Lieutenant Colonel TV Johnson said early today.

From The Australian :

Guerillas fired a barrage of mortar rounds into eastern Baghdad today, killing two Iraqi teenagers and wounding six other civilians, officials said.

An initial volley of mortar rounds killed two boys washing cars in a street near the former Iraqi National Olympic Committee building, said Interior Ministry spokesman Colonel Adnan Abdul-Rahman.
[…]
At least six other people were injured in the attacks, said Bashir Mohammed of Baghdad's al-Kindi hospital.

Witnesses said at least four mortars landed within an hour in the same area on Palestine street, a main Baghdad thoroughfare, as cars were driving by.
[…]
A separate volley of mortar rounds also fell near the Palestine Hotel, where foreign journalists and contractors stay.

One 120mm mortar shell fell near Firdous Square, the roundabout in front of the Palestine where US forces helped Iraqis topple a statue of Saddam Hussein on April 9, 2003. The shell didn't explode and could be seen sticking out of the street.

Iraqi security forces blocked traffic at the roundabout while they waited for experts to defuse and remove it.

Another round fell near the Baghdad Hotel in the same area, but caused no casualties, a foreign security official said on condition of anonymity.

So now they're not 'terrorists' or even 'insurgents', they're 'guerillas'. Who aim at a Sporting association, and kill a couple of kids instead.

From the AFP via The Australian :

A senior woman academic was shot dead by unknown gunmen as she was driving to her university department in Iraq's main northern city of Mosul today, police said.

Iman Abdul Moneam Younis, head of translation at Mosul University's College of Art, died instantly when gunmen drew up alongside her in a car at 8.30am (2.30pm AEST) and opened fire, before speeding off, said Major Falah Hassan.

The 36-year-old was killed in central Mosul, and had complained of receiving death threats, Major Hassan said.

Ms Younis had not been a member of the former ruling Baath party and had not held any public position before.

Any bets this was Islamic Fundamentalists “putting a woman in her proper place”?

NAJAF, Iraq (CNN) — A peace deal brokered by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr brought peace and quiet Friday to Najaf, which is in ruins after three weeks of fighting between al-Sadr's Mehdi Army militia and U.S. and Iraqi forces.

Iraqi police were securing Najaf's Old City and the Imam Ali Mosque as al-Sadr and al-Sistani representatives worked to transfer control of the mosque compound from the al-Sadr's militia to the Marjiya, the Shiite religious authority.

A senior al-Sadr representative said most Medhi Army members had turned in their weapons.

REUTERS: Militants Free Relative of Iraqi Minister-Jazeera

Militants who had kidnapped two relatives of Iraqi Defense Minister Hazim al-Shalaan have released one of them, Al Jazeera television reported Friday.

It said the group calling itself the “Brigades of God's Anger” freed Salah Hassan Zeidan Lamie, a relative of Shalaan by marriage, after Iraqi police met their demand to release Ali Smeisim, an aide to rebel Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

There was no word on the other kidnapped man — a blood relative of Shalaan — who was captured by the group.

The militants had earlier demanded in a video aired on Al Jazeera Wednesday that U.S. forces leave the holy city of Najaf, the scene of fierce clashes between Sadr's supporters and U.S. forces.

From the AFP via The Australian :

At least 25 charred and bloated bodies could be seen lying in the courtyard of a religious court set up by rebel cleric Moqtada Sadr in Najaf, an AFP correspondent said.

The bodies were carried up to the courtyard by police and Iraqi national guardsmen after being discovered in the basement of the building located in Najaf's Old City, near the Imam Ali shrine, police said.

“We entered the building which was being used as Moqtada Sadr's court and we discovered in the basement a large number of bodies of police and ordinary civilians,” said the deputy head of the Najaf police, General Amer Hamza al-Daami.

“Some were executed, others were mutilated and others were burned.”

From Reuters via the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

Thousands of chanting Iraqi Shiites have entered a sacred shrine in Najaf, greeted by rebels who have reached a peace agreement to end a bloody three-week uprising.

The supporters of revered cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who brokered the peace deal, kissed the outer wall of the Imam Ali mosque before the militants allowed them in.

Armed with AK-47 assault rifles, teenage fighters loyal to rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr spilled over the alleyways leading to the gold-domed mosque.

Some smiled and said to the visitors as they flowed in: “Welcome, pilgrims, to the shrine.”

An order from Sadr, telling his fighters to lay down their arms and join the pilgrims, has been read out over the mosque's loudspeakers.

But it is not immediately clear if Sadr is instructing his Mehdi Army militia to leave the mosque for good in accordance with the peace deal.
[…]
“We will support whatever Ayatollah Sistani and Sayyed Moqtada have agreed. But we will still slit the throats of the Americans,” one militiaman, Hussein Taama, said.
[…]
Several American military humvees drove past, away from the shrine area as police appeared to be taking control.

Ayatollah Sistani aide Hamed al-Khafaf says Sadr had agreed to all points of the peace plan to end the fighting.

And from the AFP, also via the ABC :

Rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has officially handed over control of Najaf's Imam Ali shrine to Iraq's top Shiite religious authority, a representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani says.

”Moqtada Sadr has officially handed over control of the shrine to Marjaiya,” Sheikh Hassan al-Husseini said.

Sheikh Husseini is one of 12 delegates from Ayatollah Sistani's office visiting the shrine.

He says the handover happened at 1:30pm local time.

Sadr spokesman Sheikh Ahmed al-Shaibani and the head of Ayatollah Sistani's Beirut office, Ahmed Khaffaf, signed a document formally attesting to the handover before all representatives left the compound.

One of Ayatollah Sistani's representatives shut the door behind them and gave the key to Mr Khaffaf.

From Reuters via the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

The Italian Government has confirmed that kidnappers in Iraq have killed an Italian journalist.

The confirmation came from a spokesman for Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who described the killing as “an act of barbarity”.

News of the execution was broken by the Arabic-language television station in the Middle East, Al Jazeera.

It cited the kidnappers as saying Enzo Baldoni had been put to death because Italy refused to heed their demand to withdraw its troops from Iraq.

Mr Baldoni and his driver were caught in an ambush between Baghdad and Najaf last week.

The driver was found dead at the weekend.

And from News Ltd :

Yesterday, Iraq coach Adnan Hamd, who produced a fairytale for the war-torn nation by guiding it to the semi-finals of the Olympic tournament, pleaded for the release Baldoni.

Hamd's team plays Italy in a match for the bronze medal in Salonika early tomorrow morning (AEST) and the Iraqis were to use the occasion to call on the kidnappers to release the father of two immediately.

“We want to send a message of peace to those who have taken him,” Hamd said. “They should let him go back to his family. We are all brothers, we are all human beings.

From the New York Times :

Mr. Bush also acknowledged for the first time that he made a “miscalculation of what the conditions would be'' in postwar Iraq. But he insisted that the 17-month-long insurgency that has upended the administration's plans for the country was the unintended by-product of a “swift victory” against Saddam Hussein's military, which fled and then disappeared into the cities, enabling them to mount a rebellion against the American forces far faster than Mr. Bush and his aides had anticipated.

He insisted that his strategy had been “flexible enough” to respond, and said that even now “we're adjusting to our conditions” in places like Najaf, where American forces have been battling one of the most militant of the Shiite groups opposing the American-installed government.

To state the bleedin' obvious.

From the AFP via The Australian :

At least 10 Iraqis, including two children, and a US soldier were wounded today when a car bomb blew up in the path of a US military convoy in the main northern city of Mosul, medical sources said.

The car exploded at around 11am (1700 AEST) in the central Yarmuk district of the city as US military vehicles passed.

A woman was also among those wounded.

The US military said one American soldier was taken to hospital for treatment following the attack, but had no information on civilian casualties.

For those who have not seen it before, Brian Palmer has been with the 24th Marine Expeditionary unit for about seven weeks and has documented the time with a weekly digital diary including prose and photos. The final installment of the six week project is now online. For a good insight on what our Marines in the 24th have been going through over the past couple of months, you can read the whole thing.

Although anecdotal, here's a taste of what U.S. Marines in Iraq are feeling about the 2004 Presidential election.

…plenty of rah-rah triumphalism and USA-first hyperpatriotism but found only a little, not a lot. There were a few folks who hooted at John Kerry when he appeared on the chow hall's TV screen, and then cheered when Bush came on. “John Kerry is a f—-ing communist” for tossing his Vietnam War ribbons, asserted a cocky young Marine from Arkansas, Corporal Michael Euler, a soon-to-be father who knows what he knows and will tell you so in a heartbeat.

Yes, I confess, Mike and his wife are close friends of mine. Whether you agree with his sentiments or not, please keep them in your prayers.

Cross posted at SSG and in the Election section.

(AFP)

“An agreement has been reached between aides of Iraq`s top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and rebel cleric Moqtada Sadr in Najaf, battered by 22 days of fighting, a representative said Thursday.

“An agreement has been reached and you will hear something cheerful soon,” the aide told reporters outside the villa where Sistani has been resting since his arrival in Najaf earlier.

The source did not give his name and pressed journalists to wait for an announcement in full.

(Reuters)

“Iraq's most revered Shi'ite religious authority has agreed a “very positive” deal with rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr to end a three-week uprising by Sadr's militiamen in the holy city of Najaf, police say.

Reporters were called to a news conference on Thursday at Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani's house to announce details of the deal.”

(AP)

The plan calls for Najaf and the city of Kufa to be declared weapons-free cities. All foreign forces would have to pull out of Najaf, leaving security to police there.

And, the Iraqi government would have to compensate those who were harmed by the fighting.

From The Australian :

Grand Ayatollah Ali Husseini al-Sistani “is working toward a peaceful solution to hostilities in Najaf”, said US Rear Admiral Gregory J Slavonic.

”Coalition forces will support Sistani's effort to return the city to the citizens of Najaf”.

Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi declared a 24-hour ceasefire in Najaf from the time of Sistani's arrival this afternoon “to confirm our commitment to peace”.

Sistani, who returned from London yesterday armed with a peace initiative, is calling for Najaf and Kufa to be declared weapons-free cities, for all foreign forces to withdraw from Najaf and leave security to the police, and for the government to compensate those harmed by the fighting here.

Rear Admiral Slavonic said the US military would adhere to the ceasefire “for 24 hours, to see if this agreement will be adhered to” by the forces of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

'Hope Springs Eternal' and all that.

From The Australian :

Saboteurs have attacked about 20 oil pipelines in southern Iraq, reducing exports from the key oil producing region by at least one third, a top oil official said today.

The cluster of pipelines was attacked late yesterday in Berjasiya, 30 kilometres south-west of the southern city of Basra, an official with the state-run South Oil Co said on condition of anonymity.

The pipelines, which connect the Rumeila oilfields to Berjasiya, were still ablaze today.

Associated Press Television News footage showed huge plumes of black smoke and flames leaping from the Zubayr 1 pumping station, south of Basra.

Oil exports out of southern Iraq average about 1.85 million barrels a day. The oil official said yesterday's sabotage cut exports to 1.2 million barrels.

Squadron leader Spike Wilson, a spokesman for British troops helping maintain security in the area, said he was only aware of one pipeline breach 20 kilometres west of Zubayr.

He said it was not clear if that pipeline had been attacked, however.

“It's a minor pipeline, it hasn't impeded the export of oil at all,” Wilson said. “Because the infrastructure of the pipelines are so old, they frequently just give way.”

From the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

Supporters of Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, have been fired upon in the town of Kufa and 20 people have been killed.

It is unclear who opened fire.

In a separate incident, supporters of rebel Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr have been attacked as they marched from the town of Kufa to the city of Najaf.

The national guard opened fire as thousands of people chanting their solidarity with Sadr and denouncing Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, passed a military base.

NAJAF, Iraq (CNN) — Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most powerful Shiite cleric, arrived at his home in Najaf on Thursday, and initiated talks to put an end to violence in the region.

The bloodshed has escalated in recent days and spread to the nearby city of Kufa, where a mortar attack on the main mosque Thursday morning killed 25 people and wounded scores of others.

Al-Sistani's arrival comes as the Iraqi government and renegade Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr made moves to bring a halt to the three weeks of fighting in war-torn Najaf.

More:

[ABC-Australia] His plan calls for the immediate withdrawal of all forces from around the Imam Ali mosque, and the disarming of the militia.

Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has ordered a 24-hour cease-fire in Najaf to allow talks with radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr to take place.

A spokesman for Sistani has confirmed that those talks have now begun.

“We have started contacts with Moqtada Sadr and in the coming hours we are waiting, hoping that we will succeed in saving the city from destruction,” Ahmed al-Khaffaf said.

“Once again I'm calling upon people wanting to enter Najaf to stay where you are if possible.

“Demonstrators outside Najaf will only be admitted to the city after they have been searched.”

A mortar barrage slammed into a mosque filled Iraqis preparing to march on the embattled city of Najaf, killing 27 people and wounding 63 here Thursday hours before the nation's top Shiite cleric was expected to arrive in area with a peace initiative.

The attack on the main mosque in Kufa — just a few miles from Najaf — dampened renewed hopes for a rapid resolution to the three-week crisis in Najaf. The U.S. military and the insurgents both blamed the other for the attack.

Read more..

Agence France Presse reports:

A Sistani spokesman told AFP that the ayatollah wanted foreign troops to leave Najaf, Iraqi police to take responsibility for security and the government to pay compensation to those who have suffered in the fighting.

Cross-post from OTB

Web Site Shows 'Beheading of American Spy' in Iraq (Reuters)

An Islamic militant group posted pictures on its Web site on Wednesday of what it said was the beheading of a man it called a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency spy in Iraq. Army of Ansar al-Sunna's site showed five sequential photographs of the apparent beheading and threatened the same fate for other people who it caught spying. It was not immediately possible to verify the authenticity of the pictures.

The group said in an accompanying statement that Jamal Tewefic Salman, who became an U.S. citizen in 1980, confessed to be masquerading as a journalist in Iraq to spy on Islamic fighters for the CIA. “A group of mujahideen were able to kidnap a spy called Jamal Tewefic Salman, who got U.S. citizenship in 1980. He changed his name to Khaled Abdul Messih,” it said. “We have implemented God's judgment on him and the accompanying pictures show his beheading. We call on those living off the blood of the mujahideen to repent to God and stop what they are doing … or else the mujahideen's and God's hands will reach their necks one by one,” it added.

Ansar al-Sunna has claimed many attacks since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq last year but no official link has been made between the group and the attacks it has claimed. The group on Sunday showed individual pictures of 12 Nepalis it said it was holding in Iraq. Militants in the country have waged a campaign of kidnapping aimed at driving out individuals, companies and troops supporting U.S.-led forces and the new Iraqi interim administration. Scores of hostages have been taken. Some have been released but at least nine have been killed.

Via Rusty Shackleford

Reuters seems to be the only one with the story at the moment; I can't find it on GoogleNews.

For background, see Report: CIA Agent Beheaded on Video (OTB, August 11).

From The Australian :

US forces launched heavy bombing strikes on the volatile city of Fallujah today, residents said.

US warplanes strafed targets at least 15 times on the city's eastern outskirts, and explosions could be heard for over two hours.

Militants across the city fired anti-aircraft guns as US aircraft approached, witnesses said.

It was the second day in a row that US warplanes have attacked Fallujah.

From the AFP via The Australian :

An important gas pipeline in southern Iraq was on fire today after an act of sabotage, a spokesman for the Hilla Oil Company told AFP.

”Unidentified attackers caused an explosion today in a gas pipeline used to transport liquid gas from the province of Basra to the other towns in the south, setting off a fire in the pipeline,” Muayyed Yussef, a company engineer, said.

“The explosion happened at 7am (1pm AEST) at Aawazel, a region about 30km south of Hilla”, which is 100km south of Baghdad, he added.

The pipeline feeds the south of Iraq with gas for local consumption, but the fire was still raging at the end of the morning and teams of firefighters were on the scene trying to get the blaze under control, Mr Yussef said.