Hopes of Shiite peace wane in Iraq

By Jennie Matthew - KUFA, Iraq

Hopes of an end to a Shiite Muslim uprising in central Iraq looked in jeopardy Friday as deadly violence gripped the cities of Kufa and Najaf.

As the clock ticked down to the June 30 return of sovereignty to an Iraqi executive, militiamen loyal to firebrand cleric Moqtada Sadr fought US forces, dealing a blow to a 24-hour-old ceasefire in the city and neighbouring Najaf.

Four civilians were killed and 13 wounded in the clashes, according to hospitals.

Close Sadr aide Sheikh Taher al-Asadi said US troops attacked the Mehdi Army at about 7:00 am (0300 GMT).

"We didn't fire any mortars on them and we have been committed to the ceasefire," he said.

"They are trying to arrest or kill Sadr and to prevent people from expressing their support for their leader," Asadi claimed.

But an Iraqi working for Iranian news agency IRNA said militiamen opened fire with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades when three US tanks advanced towards the centre of Kufa.

Sabah al-Tamimi said the tanks fired back, but stopped some 500 metres (yards) from the Kufa Grand Mosque, where Sadr failed to show for his regular sermon Friday and his words were read out by an aide.

A US military spokeswoman said two soldiers were wounded and their Humvee destroyed when a patrol came under attack from small arms near Kufa.

Witnesses said the fighting had ended before the start of prayers.

In Najaf, the car of Sheikh Saddredin al-Kubbanji, a moderate Shiite Muslim cleric, was raked with gunfire after Friday prayers but it was not clear if he was hurt.

The shooting broke out at the northern entrance to the Imam Ali mausoleum, where several of Sadr's militiamen were posted.

Kubbanji is the Najaf head of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), which is represented on the Governing Council.

In the text of his sermon, Sadr cleric lashed out at Iraq's mainstream Shiite leadership and ridiculed US President George W. Bush.

"The enemy is entering the city, (Najaf) and is shelling it and you are quiet," Jaber al-Khafaji, who escaped US efforts to arrest him earlier this week, read out over the loudspeaker.

"The dome of Imam Ali's mausoleum is hit and you are quiet. Your people are under the boot of the occupier and you are quiet. When are you going to speak up?" said the sermon, Sadr's strongest criticism yet of the Shiite authority.

Avoiding any direct reference to the ceasefire, Khafaji reminded worshippers of a truce the Prophet Mohammed made with the Jews in the Arabian peninsula.

"He made the truce, but he was determined that if they (the Jews) violated it, he would chop their heads with swords, one after the other," said Khafaji.

Sadr had offered to withdraw his fighters from Najaf and neighbouring Kufa if US forces pulled back as part of a deal to end nearly the insurgency that has left hundreds of militiamen dead.

The deal does not provide for the disarmament of the militia and makes no mention of other cities where the Mehdi Army is present.

Neither was it clear if or when Sadr would go before a court to face charges relating to the murder of a rival cleric last year.

Meanwhile, two Japanese journalists and their Iraqi translator were killed in an ambush just south of Baghdad on Thursday, as was the son of a Governing Council member in a separate attack.

"A rocket was fired at their car. The vehicle was incinerated and their corpses charred," said head of the Mahmudiya hospital, Imad al-Malaki.

Police said one of the reporters was not immediately killed in the attack and was apparently executed by his attackers later.

Their fate is likely increase the controversy over the deployment of a small contingent of Japanese troops outside the southern city of Samawa.

A son of the Iraqi Governing Council's only woman member, Salama al-Khufaji, was also killed when her convoy was attacked, a council spokesman said Friday.

And a team from US television network NBC was released unharmed after being held for more than 48 hours in the Sunni Muslim stronghold of Fallujah, where scores of US soldiers and hundreds of Iraqis were killed last month.

The four, three NBC veterans and an Iraqi, were picked up by a small group of armed Iraqis in the city on Tuesday, the network said.

For their part, US forces released a new wave of prisoners from the Abu Ghraib jail, west of Baghdad, which has become infamous as a torture house under Saddam Hussein and for abuse by US prison guards.

Thirteen buses, packed with detainees, drove away from the gates of the detention centre at 10:20 am (0620 GMT) as thousands of relatives crowding outside the complex shouted "God is Greatest," said an AFP correspondent.

A spokeswoman for the US military said up to 600 prisoners were slated to be released from Abu Ghraib from 8:00 am.

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