Sadr Not Injured, Lull In Najaf Fighting: Iraqi Defense Ministry

BAGHDAD, Aug 13 (AFP) - Iraq's defense ministry said Friday radical cleric Moqtada Sadr was not injured and that there was a lull in fighting in the central city of Najaf, while declining to say whether this was a prelude to a ceasefire.
"Sayed (honorific) Moqtada was not hurt and there is a lull in fighting from last night," a spokesman for the defense ministry told AFP.
Aides to Sadr said earlier the cleric was injured Friday in the chest, leg and arm in an attack while he was inspecting fighting positions of his Mehdi Army militiamen holding out against US and Iraqi forces in the old city.
Clashes broke out early Friday in Midan Square east of the Imam Ali Shrine, where militia are holed up.
Eight wounded Iraqis were taken out of the old city Friday after an accord between the governor's office and militia leaders allowed ambulances to go into the area through a secured road, said a local health official.