Battles rage around Najaf's holy sites

The fighting erupted as US forces intensified their war against al-Sadr on Friday, sending tanks into Najaf's vast cemetery to blast guerrilla positions on sacred ground in the holy city for the first time.

Explosions and gunfire rocked Najaf for about six hours while fighting raged around the main police station, less than a kilometre from some of the most revered Shia shrines.

At least four dead and 26 wounded - mostly civilians caught in the crossfire - were taken to Najaf's hospital, officials there said. Many more people were believed to have been killed in the cemetery, but their bodies had yet to be collected, they added.

Aljazeera's correspondent reported that six US tanks had entered in Thawrat al-Aishrin square near the police station since Thursday night. More tanks joined them on Friday morning.


US helicopters also hovered over the area as armed black-clad men, their heads in scarves, were seen running inside the sprawling cemetery, northwest of the city centre.



Shrine damaged

Amid the clashes, al-Sadr aides showed journalists three holes in the gilded dome of the Imam Ali mosque nearby, the most sacred Shia shrine.

Each side pointed the finger of blame at the other.

"Let me make it clear we did not attack the shrine of Imam Ali," US military spokesman Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt said in Baghdad.

Gunfire and loud explosions were also heard coming from an area south of Najaf known as Bahr al-Najaf, where about 2500 US soldiers are camped in the desert.

Al-Sadr's fighters have dug in with heavy weapons on a hill overlooking Bahr, about 100 metres south of the shrine. Their military command post is also in this area right behind the shrine.

Tense south

The fighting comes one day after Najaf's new police chief Ghalib al-Jazairi accused fighters of "terrorising" residents and asked them to leave.

Shia fighters also took over the governor's offices in Nasiriya, south of Najaf, and the city was tense.

And residents reported intermittent gunfire on Friday in the southern city of Karbala, where US troops and al-Sadr's Mahdi Army have fought intense battles this week.

Elsewhere, northeast of Baghdad, a bomb exploded in front of the house of a tribal chief, killing him and one of his daughters.

The motive for the killing in Muqdadiyah of Rukan Mughir, head of the Miahi tribe, was unclear. However, residents said he had been cooperating with occupation forces.

Another daughter and a son of the chief were injured in the blast, hospital officials said.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/CD724AC9-ECCD-44F6-B4E1-6F195498B97F.htm