US Backed Iraqi Government Bans Journalists From Covering Najaf Massacre

Iraqi police told the journalists to leave because of a supposed threat by insurgents to bomb their hotel. The intimidation - including shots apparently fired by police at the hotel - came as Iyad Allawi, the interim prime minister, hailed the birth of democracy in Iraq at the opening of a national conference in Baghdad.

The fighting in Najaf, the epicentre of a revolt led by the Shia militant cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, caused protests from some delegates.

The gathering, which took place as insurgents fired mortars close to the conference centre in Baghdad's highly-protected Green Zone, will choose the members of an embryonic parliament to oversee the government. However some Shia delegates demanded the suspension of the conference until the fighting in Najaf stops.

A brief ceasefire in Najaf collapsed at the weekend. As fighting resumed, Mr Allawi demanded that Sadr's followers, the Mahdi army, lay down their weapons and move out of the Shrine of Ali. There was repeated gunfire and explosions around the mosque, one of the holiest in Shia Islam.

The attempt to impose a news blackout in Najaf will reinforce the suspicions that a politically risky assault to storm the shrine will soon be under way.

Damage to the shrine or the entry of US troops into the compound could provoke a Shia backlash and increase support for Sadr.

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