World News 19-08-2004 who: Shi`ite cleric Hojatoleslam Moqtada al-Sadr what: Offers to lay down arms if US forces withdraw from battle-torn city where: Najaf, Iraq when: Yesterday snippet: Having been given "the next few hours" to lay down their arms or face a major assault that would "teach them a lesson they will never forget", the armed insurgents occupying the mosque in Najaf yesterday offered to "transform the Mehdi Army into a political party in exchange for amnesty," reports The Independent. But as fighting continues, The Telegraph thinks Sadr`s offer "may have come too late to stave off a military assault on the sacred Imam Ali shrine." [... more]

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