BAGHDAD, Aug. 21 (UPI) -- Multinational forces reportedly suspended military operations in Najaf Saturday after Shiite gunmen evacuated a holy site in which they had been barricaded.
An unidentified police official quoted on Iraqi television said Iraqi national guards rounded up 425 members of rebel Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr's al-Mehdi Army who were entrenched inside Imam Ali's mosque and mausoleum, the holiest shrine for Shiites.
Nevertheless, confusion still prevailed in Najaf about whether the gunmen have effectively handed over the keys to the mosque to the religious authorities in the city.
Sources in Sadr's militia assert the mosque is still under their control and that U.S.-backed Iraqi forces were still surrounding the site, which was the scene of fierce fighting the past two weeks.
Observers underlined that the confusion and delay in settling the situation in Najaf was backfiring on the credibility of the Iraqi government of Iyad Allawi, which had served an ultimatum of a few hours to Sadr to meet its terms for ending the fighting. The government asked Sadr to announce in public and make a written commitment that he would renounce violence, disarm his al-Mehdi Army militia, hand over its arms to authorities and turn his movement into a political party.
