IRAQ CONFERENCE Proxies say cleric can't stay in shrine

A journalist and his translator have disappeared.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Delegates at Iraq's National Conference called on radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to abandon his uprising against U.S. and Iraqi troops and pull his fighters out of a holy shrine in Najaf.
Al-Sadr and his followers have fought U.S. and Iraqi forces from within the Imam Ali shrine, one of Shia Islam's most sacred sites, and fighting has spread to other parts of the country.
"This is not right. We demand Muqtada al-Sadr withdraw from the holy shrine because it's not the specific property of one person," Hussein al-Sadr, a distant cousin to the cleric, told the conference. "It belongs to everybody. Shrines should not be controlled by one man, regardless of his status."
Sending a delegation
The majority of delegates raised their hands in favor of Hussein al-Sadr's proposal to send a delegation to Najaf to meet with the militant cleric and ask him to stop fighting and join the political process.
"The door is very open to all Iraqis, regardless of their religion, ethnic background, to join the free political process," Hussein al-Sadr said.
Delegates said some of Muqtada al-Sadr's people attended the conference today for the first time since it began Sunday.
Iraq's volatile security situation has been a constant theme during the conference. Many delegates have voiced opposition to working on democratic progress while the country was wracked with insurgency and military operations by coalition troops.
Today, Falah Hassan, from the Shiite Political Council, walked out of the conference, following an ultimatum his group issued on Sunday that his delegates would leave if U.S. troops didn't pull out of Najaf within 24 hours. The rest of his group remained at the conference, however.
Discussing the future
The three-day national conference is an unprecedented forum for Iraqis of all ethnic and religious groups to discuss their visions for the future of this country, which is struggling with a Sunni insurgency, a renewed uprising by Shiite militants and constant sabotage attacks on its reconstruction efforts.
The gathering is being held under intense security precautions in the fortified Green Zone enclave in Baghdad. A 15-foot-high concrete barriers blocks the entrance. Bridges leading to the area were barricaded Sunday and the government imposed a daytime curfew for the area.
Despite the precautions, explosions shook the conference hall. A mortar barrage rammed a commuter bus station nearby, killing two people and wounding 17 others, the Health Ministry said.
In January, Iraq is to hold elections to choose a transitional government. The newly elected government then will convene a national convention to draft a constitution to be put to the voters in October 2005. Iraqis will then hold another vote in December 2005 for a constitutionally based government.
Meanwhile, three American soldiers were killed in action in Iraq, a military spokesperson said today.
Two of the soldiers were killed Sunday in Najaf when troops came under attack by militiamen loyal to Muqtada al-Sadr, Marine Capt. Carrie Batson said.
The 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit is responsible for the area, but soldiers from the Baghdad-based 1st Cavalry Division were deployed to Najaf after fighting erupted there Aug. 5.
Batson said a third soldier attached to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, deployed in Anbar province, was also killed Sunday. Anbar includes the volatile cities of Fallujah, Ramadi and Qaim on the Syrian border.
Journalist disappears
Elsewhere in Iraq, a French-American journalist has disappeared along with his Iraqi translator in the southern city of Nasiriyah, the provincial deputy governor said today.
The two went missing Friday in Nasiriyah as they were walking through a busy market, said Adnan al-Shoraify, deputy governor of Dhi Qar province. He said the translator's family had first reported the two missing.
Al-Shoraify identified the journalist as Micah Garen and said he worked for U.S.-based Four Corners Media. He said the Iraqi's name was Amir Doushi.
According to its Web site, the group is a "documentary organization working in still photography, video and print media" that is working in Iraq. The Web site says Garen is one of the organization's managers, and shows a portfolio of his photos from Iraq.
Al-Shoraify said Garen was working on a project involving antiquities near Nasiriyah.
In New Haven, Conn., Garen's father Alan said the 33-year-old had been working in Iraq for about two months as a freelance journalist. He couldn't confirm his son was missing, saying only that "I haven't heard anything for several days."
The pan-Arab television station Al-Jazeera also reported the journalist missing today, but said he had been kidnapped and provided no other details. Al-Shoraify could not confirm whether he was abducted.
Garen was reportedly a citizen of both France and the United States, al-Shoraify said.
The report could not be independently confirmed.
A spokesman for Italian forces deployed in Nasiriyah, about 200 miles southeast of Baghdad, said he was looking into the report.