WASHINGTON, Aug 13 (AFP) - US and Iraqi forces will continue to squeeze the Shiite Muslim holy city of Najaf until rebels loyal to radical cleric Moqtada Sadr are pacified, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Friday.
"Our forces in Najaf are squeezing the city, frankly, to help stabilize the situation and deal with the Mehdi Army," Powell said, referring to the militia that have been engaged in fierce battles with US and Iraqi forces for the past nine days.
"What we want is an end to this kind of outlaw activities on the part of the Mehdi army and on the part of Mr al Sadr," he told reporters after meeting with Canadian Foreign Minister Pierre Pettigrew at the State Department.
Powell acknowledged that the interim Iraqi government was involved in talks with representatives of Sadr, who earlier Fridat laid down a series of conditions for the withdrawal of the militia from Najaf.
"We hope that a solution will be found in the very near future," Powell said. "But there has to be a solution that ends this kind of outlaw activity on the part of the Mehdi Army and similar organizations."
He reaffirmed commitments that US forces would not attack the Imam Ali shrine, revered by Shiites all over the world, where many of Sadr's fighters are holed up.
"We do not in any way wish to get involved with the mosque," Powell said.
Chief among the conditions Sadr laid down for his militia to pull out of Najaf is the withdrawal of US-led forces and handover of the city to the Marjayia, the Shiite religious authority.
If all multinational forces, Iraqi police and soldiers leave Najaf and the Marjayia agrees to take responsibility for the city, "the Mehdi Army would pull out from Najaf," Sadr spokesman Sheikh Ali Sumeisim said, while stressing they would not disarm.
Despite a brief flurry of intense fighting early Friday, a relative lull descended over Najaf as the US military said "clearing operations" were continuing to further isolate the militia and restore control of the city.