U.S. Troops Storm Karbala Mosque Held by Al-Sadr Militia

KARBALA, Iraq, Wednesday, May 12 — The American military attacked a mosque in this holy city on Tuesday in its largest assault yet against the forces of the rebel Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, even as the first signs emerged of a peaceful resolution to the five-week-long standoff with him.

The strike on the Mukhaiyam Mosque brought hundreds of American soldiers to within a third of a mile of two of the holiest sites in Shiite Islam, the shrines of the martyrs Hussein and Abbas. A building behind the mosque was fired on, detonating a huge weapons cache, and soldiers stormed the mosque, chasing insurgents out into a hotel and alley.

By 3:30 a.m. Wednesday, some 30 insurgents had taken up positions around the Shrine of Abbas, and they appeared to be lobbing mortars from that area at the Mukhaiyam Mosque. Special Forces soldiers began organizing groups of Iraqi forces to counterattack. Fighting was still intense five hours later. Casualties could not be immediately determined.

Until now, American forces had kept out of Karbala and nearby Najaf, another holy city, fearing to further inflame Iraqi fury against the occupying forces, now fevered because of widely distributed photographs of American personnel abusing Iraqi prisoners.

But before the attack, Col. Peter Mansoor, commander of the First Brigade of the First Armored Division, said military officers had met with Karbala's leaders and believed they would support the operation because they want Mr. Sadr's Mahdi Army run out of town. American forces may be banking on the belief that Mr. Sadr is loathed by the country's mainstream Shiite leaders and that many Muslims disagree with his use of mosques as essentially military bases. On Tuesday, several hundred Iraqis marched in Najaf to demand that he and his militia leave.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/12/international/middleeast/12IRAQ.html?ex=1084939200&en=0deea80c2cb198b8&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE