Fighting rages in Iraqi holy city

Ambulances rushed to the scene of the blast — apparently a car bomb — in Baghdad's Harithiyah district. At least one body was covered at the site and body parts could be seen lying by the side of the road.

U.S. troops fired into the air to disperse the crowds. Police Captain Hikmat Amer said that at least one woman was killed and 13 people were injured.

As the Kufa fighting began Sunday, attackers ambushed a patrol with small arms fire, killing one U.S. soldier, and fired a rocket-propelled grenade on a tank, killing another. The fighting also killed an Iraqi and injured eight others, hospital officials said.

Shia militiamen accused U.S. troops of firing near the main mosque, damaging its outer marble wall. The bodies of two slain fighters loyal to firebrand leader Motqada al-Sadr lay on the mosque's blood-soaked floor, covered with blankets.

“They have no respect for holy sites or for human rights,” said one fighter who gave only his first name, Abu Sayf. “This is a violation to the truce. We are committed, but they have no commitment.”

In a report from Kufa, CNN, which has a reporter with 1st Armored Division troops there, spoke of a “major firefight” which broke out late Sunday when soldiers tried to secure a police station. CNN quoted soldiers as saying it was the most intense fighting in the area in the past six weeks.

In a separate incident, one Task Force 1st Armored Division soldier died Sunday and two others were injured when a roadside bomb exploded south of Baghdad, the military reported. More than 800 service members have died since the beginning of military operations in Iraq.

In Baghdad, assailants ambushed a convoy of Britons on a northern Baghdad highway, killing one Iraqi security guard and a bystander, officials and witnesses said.

The attack occurred before dusk on Sunday as three sport utility vehicles headed south toward the city centre. Gunmen in an approaching vehicle opened fire, sending three of the four SUVs careening off the road into barricades.

Two witnesses, Khalid Zaalan, 22, and Qays Hussein, 15, said there was a shootout, and armed Western men jumped from the wrecked SUVs, commandeered a passing car at gunpoint and escaped.

In London, the British Foreign Office said four Britons and another Iraqi jumped out of the vehicles, flagged down a passing Iraqi vehicle and escaped. None of the Britons was hurt but the Iraqi was wounded, the statement said.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman dismissed as rumour some witness reports that some Western-looking men were abducted by the attackers.

A family of three was caught in the crossfire, according to Dr. Mazhar Abdullah of the nearby al-Sadr hospital. The husband was killed and his six-months-pregnant wife was seriously injured, the doctor said.

Last week, a roadside bomb killed two British civilians working for a security company when it blew up their armoured car near the coalition headquarters in Baghdad.

Roadside bombs also exploded in the southern city of Basra, where five policemen were injured, and in Samawa, where a U.S. convoy was targeted.

The heaviest fighting took place in the twin cities of Najaf and Kufa, 160 kilometres south of Baghdad, Shia politicians sought to save a three-day-old agreement with Mr. al-Sadr to end the standoff with U.S. soldiers in the holy city and restore government control there.

His militia, known as the Mahdi Army, took over in early April after occupation authorities cracked down on his militia, closing his newspaper, arresting a key lieutenant and announcing an arrest warrant against him for the murder of a rival cleric.

Under a deal announced Thursday with Shia leaders, Mr. al-Sadr agreed to remove his fighters from the streets and begin a dialogue with the clerical hierarchy over the future of his militia and the warrant against him. U.S. troops agreed to halt offensive operations around Najaf and Kufa.

Daily clashes since the agreement was announced, however, have threatened to scuttle the deal. About 150 policemen sent from Baghdad to replace local policemen who deserted returned to Baghdad — ostensibly because of lack of accommodation for them.

The move threatens to delay the start of joint patrols — considered the key to shoring up security in the city as Mr. al-Sadr's militiamen return to their homes.

Despite the clashes, Governing Council member Ahmad Chalabi, who travelled to Najaf to help shore up the agreement, told reporters there was a “a momentum for peace” and the fellow Shia leaders were “working to implement this so we can avoid any clashes.”

Mr. Chalabi met with Mr. al-Sadr's aides Sunday night and afterward told reporters he had worked out a “detailed plan for the implementation” of the truce agreement and would present them to U.S. and Iraqi officials Monday.

“We ask both sides to stop hostilities,” Mr. Chalabi said.

Meanwhile, a dispute between Iraq's Governing Council and U.S. occupation authorities over the president of a new transitional government delayed formation of the new Cabinet to take power June 30.

A council member, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the U.S. governor of Iraq, Paul Bremer, and special U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi were exerting “massive pressure” on the U.S.-appointed group to choose former foreign minister Adnan Pachachi, a Sunni Muslim councilman.

The current council chairman, however, civil engineer Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer, was believed to be the choice of most of the 22 members.

Council members conferred through the night Sunday, but opted to postpone a session set for Monday.

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