Offensive In Najaf Will Continue Unless Sadr's Men Pull Out: Iraqi Minister

BAGHDAD, Aug 12 (AFP) - Iraqi officials vowed Thursday that a joint US-Iraqi offensive to crush Shiite Muslim militiamen would continue and demanded that fighters evacuate the holy shrine in Najaf, after eight days of heavy clashes.
"Our government calls on all armed groups to drop weapons and return to civil society. The political process is open to everyone and all are invited to take part," said a statement from Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.
"We also call on armed men to evacuate the holy shrine and not to violate their sanctity," added the statement, read out at a news conference by Minister of State Kassem Daoud (eds: correct).
Defence Minister Hazem al-Shalan said 1,200 militiamen had been captured in Najaf, "many of them non-Iraqis" who do not speak Arabic, and US-led multinational forces had taken up positions in the city's 1920 Revolution Square.
Another 400 militiamen have been killed, captured or wounded in the nearby southern city of Kut, according to the minister.
Amid the fighting, the shutdown of a vital oil pipeline in southern Iraq following the threat of militia attacks has already led to losses of about 60 million dollars, the prime minister's statement added.
"The operations are continuing in the city (of Najaf) and will continue until the militia is forced out or they surrender to Iraqi authorities and benefit from the amnesty scheme," Shalan told reporters.
"They (the militiamen) have defiled the sanctity of the shrine" in Najaf, charged Shalan, who was flanked by Daoud and Interior Minister Falah al-Naqib as well as two other ministers.
"This a conspiracy against Iraq. This is a war on Iraq and aiming to destroy Iraq," said Naqib, referring to the violence which has engulfed the country since the 2003 US-led invasion which toppled president Saddam Hussein.
On Saturday, Allawi unveiled a limited 30-day amnesty for supporters of the country's 16-month insurgency.
US planes pounded bastions of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr's Mehdi Army militia in Kut overnight Wednesday, killing 75 people, the Iraqi health ministry said.