Iraq's leading Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, has reached an apparent agreement with the radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to end a three-week uprising by al-Sadr's Mehdi army militiamen in Najaf.
The breakthrough came after a day of bloody violence in Najaf.
At least 60 people were killed in three separate incidents as Iraq's most revered Shia cleric arrived in Najaf under heavy guard in a last-ditch attempt to end fighting in the city.
US forces suspended their military offensive against the Mehdi army for 24 hours to maximise the chances of the peace talks achieving a settlement and representatives of all sides were optimistic of a positive outcome.
Police in the city said yesterday a deal had been done.
And later, Al-Sayyid Murtadha Al-Kashmiri, an al-Sistani representative in London, who had been in contact with the Najaf office, said: "An agreement has been reached, but it hasn't been announced."
Earlier, an estimated 35 demonstrators were shot dead by Iraqi police in Najaf and nearby Kufa after answering both al-Sistani and al-Sadr's calls for supporters to march on the Shia holy city. Some witnesses to the Najaf bloodshed said police had fired after armed men who had joined the marchers first shot at the police, while others said they were unaware of any firing from the crowd.
In a third incident a mortar attack on Kufa's main mosque killed 25 people - mainly al-Sadr supporters preparing to walk the 10km to Najaf.
Al-Sistini's call for a demonstration in his support was heeded in huge numbers. Hamid al-Khaffaf, the head of the Ayatollah's Beirut office, who accompanied him from Basra, appealed to demonstrators to stay out of the centre of the city and to return home if they had nowhere to stay.
Meanwhile, a sabotage attack on a cluster of about 20 oil pipelines has cut exports from the key oil-producing region by half, a top oil official said.
But US military officials said the attack had only a negligible effect on exports, said Troy Hawkes, a US military spokesman.
The pipelines were attacked on Thursday in Berjasiya, 30km southwest of Basra.
- Independent
Bloody day ends in hope of reconciliation in Najaf
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