Rockets hit as Iraq rebels talk peace

TWO rockets slammed into the Sheraton Hotel in Baghdad last night, in a brazen attack which overshadowed a pledge by a Shiite militia to disarm.

Shortly after the blasts, gunfire echoed across the city centre. A hotel resident said one rocket had hit a first-floor room, a second struck nearby.

There were no immediate reports of casualties in the fortified compound containing the Sheraton and the adjacent Palestine Hotel, both used by foreign journalists and contractors. A tree was set ablaze outside the Sheraton.

The blasts occurred shortly after a top aide to the rebel Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr announced that Shiite militiamen would hand over their weapons as part of a peace initiative in Baghdad’s Sadr City and other trouble-spots.

The proposed deal, which requires the government’s approval, could help to calm violence between US forces and Shiite rebels ahead of elections due in January and may pave the way for similar talks with Sunni-led insurgents.

The proposal was announced by Ali Smeism, considered Sadr’s most senior acolyte, in a live broadcast on the Arabic satellite television channel al-Arabiya and came hours after a top cleric was freed from US detention.

Moayad al-Khazraji, detained nearly a year ago along with other Shiite clerics close to Sadr, was released from Abu Ghraib jail near Baghdad, a move seen as facilitating a possible deal.

A US official confirmed that Khazraji was among 230 Iraqis who were freed from the prison this week.

The interim prime minister, Iyad Allawi, insists that Sadr’s Mehdi Army militia must give up its weapons and get off the streets.