Shiites form committee to collect al-Mahdi weapons in Najaf
(Al-Taakhi) - Haider al-Moosawi, spokesman of Dr. Ahmed al-Chalabi, announced the formation of a committee - including representatives of Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani and Muqtada al-Sadr - to collect heavy weapons in Najaf. Moosawi said the negotiations succeeded in forming a committee to collect heavy weapons from al-Mahdi army militants, especially the weapons kept in holy shrines. Meanwhile, US troops marched towards the heart of Najaf after a US base was hit by 18 missiles. A fight then broke out with the Mahdi army, leaving five dead and 16 wounded. Moosawi said the al-Mahdi army evacuated state buildings and returned cars they commandeered after the crisis started early last month.
(Al-Taakhi is issued daily by the Kurdistan Democratic Party.)

Militias called on to join new army
(Al-Mashriq) - The Ministry of Defense (MD) called on all parties' militias to join the new Iraqi army. Spokesman Korkees Hirmiz said the MD would not recognise any party's militia, unless it joined the new army. He said a military agreement would be signed with US forces, but he gave no details of the agreement.
(Al-Mashriq is published daily by Al-Mashriq Institution for Media and Cultural Investments.)

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Kurds decline to bargain for Italians
(Al-Ittihad) - Iraqi Kurds turned down an offer made by kidnappers of three Italians to exchange them for members of an Islamist group detained in Kurdistan. Mustafa Saif al-Deen, Deputy Chief of Security in the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, said the security apparatus would not give in to anyone. He said the hardliners had caused much trouble for the security of the region of Kurdistan.
(Al-Ittihad is published daily by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.)

Dhari says capture or killing Sadr 'a big idiocy'
(Al-Sabah) - Harith Suleiman al-Dhari, head of Muslim Clerics Board, said arresting or killing Muqtada al-Sadr by the Americans would be "a big idiocy". He said that behind these threats was a premeditated policy to limit Sadr's popularity among the Shia due to his patriotism. Dhari also accused the Governing Council sectarianism, racism, and promoting personal interests. In other news, there have been attempts to form a unified clerics board of Shias and Sunnis. Dhari also welcomed the proposal made by al-Akhdhar al-Ibrahimi to dissolve the GC and form a technocratic government. He added that those who oppose occupation would hold their first meeting in Baghdad next Saturday.
(Al-Sabah is issued daily by the Iraqi Media Network on behalf of the Coalition Provisional Authority.)

GC didn't want Muhammedi
(Al-Mada) - Foreign minister Hoshyar Zibari yesterday said the Governing Council had asked the Coalition Provisional Authority not to appoint Major General Muhammed Jasim Salih al-Muhammedi as commander of Fallujah regiment because of his participation in oppressing the 1991 Shia uprising against Saddam Hussein. The suppression resulted in the extermination of thousands of Iraqi Shia and Kurds. Zibari said the GC did not object to appointing Major General Muhammed Latif as commander of the Fallujah regiment since he had spent years in the former regime's prisons.
(Al-Mada is issued daily by Al-Mada institution for Media, Culture, and Arts.)

Phoney front offers reward to kill GC members
(Asharq al-Awsat) - A group calling itself the "Iraqi Organisation of Liberation" has offered to give $2 million to whoever kills or arrests a Governing Councillor or a member of the Iraqi interim government. The organisation even offered $5 million to whoever kills one of the leading figures in the GC: Ahmed al-Chalabi, Jalal al-Talabani, Masoud al-Barazani, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, or Muhammed Bahr ul-Uloom. The organisation also promised to help send the person who does this with his family to any place in the world. Muhammed Fadhil al-Samarai, a member of the political office of the Iraqi Islamic Party, described the organization as a phoney front. "There are tens of these organizations which have no address or a phone number," he said.
(London-based Asharq al-Awsat, a Saudi independent paper, is issued daily.)

Big Brother to sort out Baghdad traffic mess
(Al-Adala) - An anonymous source in the General Directorate of Traffic said surveillance cameras will be installed on important streets of Baghdad and at so-called "hot" intersections. Through these cameras, traffic jams will be watched and drivers will be informed to take different ways to avoid jams. The source added that more than a million cars have entered Baghdad since the fall of the former regime.
(Al-Adala is issued thrice weekly by the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.)