Diplomat killed in Iraq; 3 freed

NAJAF, Iraq -- Gunmen assassinated an Iranian diplomat in Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday just as Iran, with tacit U.S. approval, attempted to mediate with a radical Shiite cleric defying American forces in this southern Iraqi city.\nMeanwhile, three Japanese were freed by their captors, a day after other kidnappers executed an Italian -- the first-known killing of a hostage in Iraq's wave of kidnappings. The freed Japanese hostages -- two aid workers and a journalist -- were handed over to Islamic clerics in Baghdad after being held for a week. They were later brought to the Japanese Embassy.\nIranian diplomat Khalil Naimi was shot in the head by unknown assailants while he drove near his embassy in the center of the capital. The slaying cast a shadow over Thursday's unusual negotiating mission by the envoy from neighboring Iran, which fought an eight-year war with Iraq in the 1980s and does not have diplomatic relations with Washington, D.C.\nIranian Embassy officials were investigating whether there was a link between the assassination and the envoy's visit. Naimi was not a member of the Iranian negotiating team.\nState Department spokesman Richard Boucher said "It's probably premature to draw any conclusions about whether it reflects anything about the role that Iran has played one way or the other in Iraq."\nThe Iranian effort to mediate with anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr was arranged by Britain, but it had the tacit approval of the United States, according to a State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity.\nThe U.S. nod reflected the eagerness to find a solution to avert a U.S. assault on Najaf, Iraq -- the holiest Shiite city -- aimed at capturing al-Sadr.\nBut it was not clear whether al-Sadr would agree to meet with the Iranian foreign ministry's director for Gulf affairs, Hossein Sadeghi. Al-Sadr was accepting mediation only by an Iraqi political party picked by Iraq's top clerics, according to his aide, Sheik Qays al-Khaz'ali.\nShiite Governing Council member Ibrahim al-Jaafari said he saw "flexibility from al-Sadr's side" and called on the Americans to show "similar flexibility."\nIraq's top U.S. administrator, L. Paul Bremer, was involved in "multiple channels" to try to negotiate an end to the standoff in the south and in the central city of Fallujah, Iraq, said Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.\nMyers warned there is a limit to how long the Marines can put off a resumption of offensive operations in Fallujah. "At some point, somebody has to make a decision on what we're going to do, and we certainly can't rule out the use of force there again," he said in a news conference.\nIn one of the few signs of possible progress in negotiations, being held between Iraqi politicians and city representatives, mosques in Fallujah Thursday announced police and Iraqi Civil Defense Corps members should report to their stations Friday, residents said.\nIt was not known, however, how many would do so. Many members of the city's security forces have left the city during the past 11 days' battles.\nAfter relative peace during the day, gunfire and explosions resumed after sundown Thursday -- as they have nightly as Sunni insurgents and Marines exchange fire over relatively fixed positions.\nMarines were broadcasting messages by loudspeaker in the city to agitate insurgents, announcing "You are cowards for hiding behind women and children. Come out and fight," and blaring heavy metal music, including AC/DC's "Shoot to Thrill," said Marine Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne.\nThursday, Marines fired a TOW missile at a mosque minaret being used as an observation post by insurgents, and the blast knocked off part of the top of the minaret, Marines said. It was not clear if anyone was killed in the blast.\nThe minaret belonged to the al-Hadra mosque, part of which is being used as an emergency medical center by the Red Crescent. The mosque has been the site of the negotiations aimed at easing the violence.