U.S. Kills Scores of Insurgents in Najaf

The battle outside Najaf was one of the heaviest with the militia as U.S. troops try to increase the pressure on gunmen loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. U.S. troops moved into a base in Najaf that Spanish troops are abandoning, but promised to stay away from the sensitive Shiite shrines at the heart of the southern city.
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The battle north of Najaf broke out Monday night and lasted several hours, with helicopter gunships called in for support, a military spokesman said.


An al-Sadr aide in Najaf, Mustaq al-Khafaji, accused Americans of trying to advance toward Kufa. "We will face the Americans whenever they show up," he said.


U.S. authorities have vowed to capture al-Sadr and uproot his militia, the al-Mahdi Army, which launched a bloody uprising at the beginning of April. Al-Mahdi gunmen still dominate Najaf, Kufa and Karbala — although fewer were seen on the streets in Najaf and Kufa Tuesday.


About 2,000 troops are deployed outside Najaf, but the military is having to tread carefully. Any action that even brings the possibility of harm to the sacred Imam Ali Shrine at its heart could turn the limited al-Sadr revolt into a widespread uprising by Iraq's Shiite majority.





Top administrator L. Paul Bremer heightened warnings about the reported stockpiling of weapons in "mosques, shrines and schools" in Najaf.

"The coalition certainly will not tolerate this situation," Bremer said in a statement to residents of Najaf. "The restoration of these holy places to calm places of worship must begin immediately."

Bremer's spokesman, Dan Senor, would not elaborate on what action would be taken and noted that "those places of worship are not protected under the Geneva Convention" if they are used to store weapons.

About 200 soldiers on Monday moved into a base that Spanish forces are abandoning in the modern part of the Kufa-Najaf urban area, three miles from the shrine. Al-Sadr's office is next to the shrine.

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US forces in Iraq say they have killed 64 Shia Muslim militiamen and destroyed an anti-aircraft weapon in fighting near the holy city of Najaf.
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The clashes between US soldiers and Shia militiamen loyal to anti-US cleric Moqtada Sadr - known as the Mehdi Army - took place on the outskirts of the town of Kufa, some 10km (six miles) north-east of Najaf.

Gen Kimmitt said 64 insurgents had been killed, 57 of them in a night-time air strike after US forces spotted an anti-aircraft gun.

Local residents said US warplanes had attacked a Mehdi Army checkpoint near Najaf after fighting between US troops and militiamen broke out in the area.

Buildings used by the militiamen near the checkpoint were badly damaged and at least three vehicles were destroyed, they said.

A Najaf hospital official put the preliminary casualty toll from the overnight clashes at 28 Iraqis dead and 32 others wounded.

Mr Sadr is wanted by US forces on charges of ordering the killing of a rival cleric and is currently based in Najaf.

One of his spokesmen described the clash as a provocation, but said the militia remained organised and co-ordinated.

Paul Bremer, the chief US administrator in Iraq, has ordered Mr Sadr to withdraw his militia and its weapons from mosques and schools in Najaf.

For his part, Mr Sadr has threatened to unleash suicide bombers against American forces if they enter the holy city.

The area had been patrolled by Spanish-led forces, but Tuesday saw them evacuate the Najaf area under Spain's pull-out from Iraq.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3662169.stm