A grainy video broadcast on Arab television Friday night showed a U.S. soldier under the control of six masked insurgents, providing a dramatic glimpse into a wave of kidnappings that have targeted soldiers, contractors and foreign civilians in Iraq over the past two weeks. In the embattled western city of Fallujah, U.S. officials held their first direct talks with local leaders aimed at ending a siege by the Marines that began April 5. But negotiations on a continuing standoff with fighters in Najaf, the other front of the two-pronged insurgency, showed no signs of progress. U.S. officials said they had rebuffed an effort by Iranian diplomats to mediate between the military and a radical cleric, Moqtada Sadr. An aide to Iraq’s most influential cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, warned U.S. troops not to enter the sacred city of Najaf, where Sadr is based. Full Story
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