Spokesmen: Agreement reached in Najaf
U.S. troop deaths reach grim milestone
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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Police will return to their posts in the holy city of Najaf after reaching an agreement with the militia of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, the city's police chief and an al-Sadr spokesman said Monday.
But a coalition source close to the situation told CNN that police have negotiated the return of only three of their stations in the south-central Iraqi city.
Al-Sadr's armed Mehdi Army militiamen continue to patrol the streets, according to the source.
Meanwhile, figures released Monday by the U.S. military showed April to be the deadliest month for American soldiers fighting in Iraq since the war began a year ago.
At least 73 U.S. troops have died in hostile action this month in Iraq, according to the military.
The figures were released as Russian civilian workers in Iraq were taken hostage, and insurgents released kidnapped Chinese men. (Full story)
There was no word Monday on the status of kidnapped American contractor Thomas Hamill, who was snatched Friday by insurgents and videotaped by the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Six of Hamill's colleagues at Kellogg, Brown & Root -- a construction and engineering company that is a subsidiary of Halliburton -- are unaccounted for, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top U.S. general in Iraq, said Monday.
Sanchez said two U.S. troops also were unaccounted for. He had no further details about the troops or the missing KBR employees.
Agreement in dispute
The reported agreement in Najaf between coalition forces and militia loyal to al-Sadr was disputed Monday by a coalition source close to the situation.
Just before police and an al-Sadr spokesman were announcing their agreement, militia fired mortar rounds at the coalition compound in Najaf, the source said.
The city of Kufa is also still under al-Sadr's control, Iraqi sources said.
"If the coalition forces pull out of Najaf, then we will help the local security and let them perform their duties," al-Sadr spokesman Qais Al-Khazaaly said.
Ali Hadi, police chief of Najaf, said police would be "back at their posts to enforce law and order" and that the Mehdi Army would pull out of police stations and government buildings.
The battle with al-Sadr's forces began earlier this month after the coalition shut down his newspaper, Al Hawza, for allegedly inciting violence, and arrested an aide on charges of complicity in the killing last year of another Shiite cleric.
An Iraqi judge has also issued a warrant for al-Sadr's arrest, and the top U.S. general in the region said that whatever happens to him is up to the Iraqis.
April one of deadliest months
U.S. military figures showed April to be the deadliest month of the war for hostile action, with 73 troops killed. Although 81 died in November 2003, 12 of those deaths occurred as a result of nonhostile incidents.
Twenty-six of the 73 troops killed this month died between Friday and Sunday, the military said.
Thirteen of the 26 dead American soldiers were killed Friday, the coalition said. Four servicemen died Saturday and another nine died Sunday, the U.S. military said.
Those deaths include three Marines who were killed in fighting west of Baghdad on Sunday and two U.S. Army pilots whose Apache helicopter was shot down Sunday in the same region, according to the Coalition Public Information Center.
The new figures bring the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq to 674 -- 479 hostile and 195 nonhostile, according to the U.S. military.
President Bush said Monday that the United States must defend ordinary Iraqis against "gangs that were trying to take the law into their own hands."
"The Iraq people are on the side of the transition to a peaceful country," Bush said at a news conference near his ranch in Crawford, Texas, with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. "We just can't let ... a small percentage of the Iraqi people decide the fate of everyone."
No word on hostages
Mohsen Abdel Hamid of the Iraqi Governing Council said Monday that Muslim clerics had issued a religious decree against abductions and that kidnappers may release their hostages later in the day.
One of the hostages, Hamill, 43, was working as a contractor truck driver at the time he was abducted.
Kidnappers demanded that U.S. forces withdraw from the Iraqi city of Fallujah by 10 p.m. Saturday ET, but since then there has been no word on his fate.
Kidnappers warned that Hamill would "be treated worse than the four Americans that were killed in Fallujah" -- a reference to the four civilians whose mutilated bodies were dragged through the city's streets March 31 -- if their demand was not met.
Friends and neighbors of Hamill held a vigil Sunday night in his Mississippi hometown. (Full story)
A separate deadline for three Japanese hostages also passed with no word. The kidnappers threatened to burn the Japanese hostages alive Sunday unless Japan pulls its troops out of Iraq.
U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney has begun a first round of meetings with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in the midst of the crisis over the Japanese civilians being held hostage in Iraq.
Senior administration officials said Cheney was to use his meeting with Koizumi to press him to stay the course in Iraq and not bow to the increasing pressure to bring the troops home. (Full story)
Two Arabs working for aid agencies are also being held by militants, one a Syrian-born Canadian and the other a resident of Jerusalem.
Militants released British citizen Gary Teeley on Sunday night, and the Arabic-language news network Al-Jazeera broadcast video of eight civilians, identified as hostages, being released, including people from Pakistan, the Philippines, India and Turkey.
However, though a voice on the tape said the eight had worked for coalition forces and were being set free at the request of Sunni clerics, no government agencies could confirm that they had actually been taken hostage.
