NAJAF, Iraq, Aug 16 (AFP) - Delegates of an Iraqi national conference postponed their mediation mission to Najaf amid new clashes in the embattled city as Turkey asked Iraq to clamp down on Kurdish rebels who had sought refuge across the border.
The new fighting came as the military announced three US marines were killed "as a result of enemy action" in the province on Sunday.
Hundreds of demonstrators and tribal chiefs from across Iraq converged on the Imam Ali mausoleum, one of Shiite Islam's holiest sites, to protest at continued fighting between the militia and US-led Iraqi police in Najaf.
Dancing and singing, they brandished pictures of Sadr and denounced Iraq's interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and the US "occupying forces".
Mortars fell near the police headquarters as the clinic operating in the shrine said eight people were wounded on the second day of isolated clashes since talks broke down between Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr and the government on Saturday.
Iraqi officials have repeatedly insisted that the militia disarm and quit Najaf for there to be any peaceful solution to the crisis.
"A major assault by forces will be launched quickly to bring the Najaf fight to an end," Interior Ministry spokesman Sabah Kadhim said late Sunday.
Amid looming fears of a fresh offensive, police ordered all journalists out of Najaf on Sunday, as one person was killed and two wounded when US troops fired on pro-Sadr demonstrators near the cemetery, a surgeon said.
But Human Rights Watch warned combatants free from international press scrutiny might fail to protect Iraqi civilians.
In Baghdad, at least 50 delegates from the national conference delayed plans to travel to Najaf until Tuesday morning, but voiced confidence they could persuade Sadr to vacate the shrine.
"We are hopeful and optimistic that we would be able to convince Sayed Moqtada and his followers to leave the shrine," said Fadel al-Khorsan, an aide to cleric Sheikh Hussein al-Sadr, a relative of Moqtada.
"We are even ready to escort them to a safe place elsewhere in city and guarantee that no one will harm them in any way," he added.
The reaction in Najaf was muted.
"We can come to an agreement on this through negotiations. We are ready to defend ourselves as we are ready for peace," said Sadr spokesman, Sheikh Ahmed Shaibani.
Meanwhile, Turkey called on Iraq to clamp down on armed Turkish Kurd rebels who have sought refuge across the border, as visiting Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawar warned Ankara against interfering in its internal affairs.
Turkey says thousands of rebels from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), recently renamed KONGRA-GEL, have holed up in mountainous northern Iraq since 1999 when the group began observing a unilateral truce in its bloody campaign for self-rule in southeastern Turkey.
The rebels are now believed to be infiltrating back into Turkey after the group cancelled the truce in June, warning foreigners and investors to stay away.
"I told President Yawar that we expected to end the presence of PKK/KONGRA-GEL in Iraq at once and to ensure that the new Iraq does not give shelter to terrorist organizations," Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer told a press conference after talks with the Iraqi leader.
Yawar for his part expressed Baghdad's readiness to combat the rebels.
"We cannot ... turn a blind eye to a formation which endangers the security of our neighbours," he said.
But he added that Baghdad would like to develop its ties with Turkey in the framework of "good neighbourly relations without any intervention in internal affairs".
Sezer also urged Baghdad to prevent Iraqi Kurds from taking sole control of the ethnically volatile northern city of Kirkuk, saying unrest in the oil-rich region would harm stability.
In Nasiriyah, deputy governor Adnan al-Sharifi said a US journalist, Micah Garen, had been kidnapped while reporting on archaeological sites in the area.
Garen is the founder and head of Four Corners Media, a US firm specialising in film, photo and written documentaries, according to its website.
Another two Turkish drivers were also reported abducted, as a Syrian and two Lebanese truckers were freed after a 10-day hostage ordeal, the mother of one of them told AFP.
In Dubai, an Islamic extremist group has given El Salvador 20 days to pull out its military contingent from Iraq before it starts "carrying the war to El Salvador," according to an Islamist Internet site.
"We give you 20 days to withdraw from Iraq," said the group, calling itself the Mohamed Atta-Al-Qaeda Jihad Brigades:
"This is the final deadline before we carry the war to El Salvador itself."
The departure of a new 380-strong Salvadoran contingent, scheduled to fly to Iraq Tuesday, was delayed because of a lack of aircraft, but officials denied the delay was linked to the threat.
In San Salvador, about 1,500 demonstrators protested the planned deployment to relieve the present force stationed there.