An AP photographer and television cameraman who were in or near the town yesterday said large numbers of Iraqi forces had sealed it off, supported by US forces farther away on the edge of Madain.
The cameraman said he toured the town yesterday morning. People were going about their business; shops were open, and teahouses were full, he said. Residents contacted by telephone also said everything was normal in Madain.
And American military officials said they were unaware of any US role in what had earlier been described as a sectarian standoff in which the Sunni militants were threatening to kill their Shi'ite captives if all the other Shi'ites did not leave the town.
The confusion illustrated how quickly rumors spread in a country of deep ethnic and sectarian divides, where the threat of violence is all too real. Poor telephone communications and the difficulty of traveling from one town to the next because of daily attacks on the roads makes it difficult for even government officials to establish the facts.
National Security Minister Qassim Dawoud warned Parliament yesterday of attempts to draw the country into sectarian war and said three battalions of Iraqi soldiers, police, and US forces were sent to Madain. He said the Iraqi military was planning a large-scale assault on the region by week's end.
A Defense Ministry official, Haidar Khayon, said earlier yesterday that Iraqi forces had raided the town and freed about 15 Shi'ite families and captured five hostage-takers in a skirmish with light gunfire. He said there were no casualties.
Iraq's most influential Shi'ite Muslim cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, urged government officials to resolve the crisis peacefully, his office said.
By the end of the day, however, Iraqi officials had produced no hostages, and Iraqi military officials and police who had given information about the troubles in Madain could not be reached for further details.
Also yesterday, Sheikh Abdul Salam al-Kubaisi, a spokesman for the Association of Muslim Scholars, an organization of Sunni clerics, denied hostages had been taken in Madain. ''This news is completely untrue," he told Al-Jazeera television.
