Heavy fighting in Najaf, Kut

US marines have been engaged in fierce fighting against Shiite rebels in the centre of the Iraqi holy city of Najaf, with heavy machine-gun and tank fire targeting militiamen loyal to the rebel Shiite cleric Moqtada al Sadr.

Meanwhile, at least 72 people were killed and 148 wounded on Thursday in US air raids and fighting between the Iraqi police and Shiite militia in the southern city of Kut, an Iraqi Health Ministry official said. Plumes of smoke were visible from the historic heart of Najaf, which holds the tomb of Imam Ali, who is revered by Shiites worldwide.

Warplanes and helicopter gunships pounded the outskirts of Najaf's cemetery as troops blocked off all roads leading to Imam Ali shrine.

The deputy governor of Najaf has resigned in protest against the US military assault. "I resign from my post denouncing all the US terrorist operations that they are doing against this holy city," Jawdat Kadam Najem al-Kuraishi, deputy governor of Najaf said.

Loudspeaker announcements urged residents to leave the city. "Leave the city. Help coalition forces and do not fire at them," the announcement instructed in Arabic. "We are here to liberate the city."

The US military have long threatened an offensive against Sadr's militia. "Iraqi and US forces are making final preparations as we get ready to finish this fight that the Moqtada militia started," said US Marine commander Colonel Anthony Haslam.

Najaf's provincial governor Adnan al-Zorfi has denied that US and Iraqi forces were preparing an offensive. "It's not true," he told AFP by telephone. "That's not our intention."

He had vowed Wednesday that US troops would not approach Imam Ali's tomb. "US forces will not enter the old city," he said. "They must stop in Midan Square," on the edge of the district. "If we decide to go into the old city, this will be the job of Iraqi police and soldiers."

A senior US commander had said on Monday that Mr Zorfi had given the US marines permission to enter the Imam Ali mausoleum in their fight against the militia.

Sadr's militia has threatened to blow up oil pipelines in southern Iraq if the US and Iraqi government forces stormed the city. Hundreds of people have been killed and wounded in the fighting that began on August 5.

Kut attack The bombardment of Kut followed a day of fierce clashes between Iraqi police and militiamen loyal to Sadr, in which at least two national guardsmen and three policemen were wounded.

"American planes started bombing the al-Shakia district, in southern Kut after 3:00 am (2300 GMT)," said Kut hospital director, Khader Fadal Arar. "They destroyed 18 houses and killed 56 people and injured more than 110, some of them very seriously," he said. Many of the dead and wounded were women and children, Mr Arar added.

The office of Sadr's movement in Kut was flattened in the bombing, said a supporter of the militia leader, Sheikh Mohammed Yihyiah. "Our office has been destroyed because it was in the same district, fortunately there was no one in the office that's why we have no casualties. Perhaps they thought it would be full of militiamen," he said.

On Wednesday, Iraqi police and security forces were locked in fighting against insurgents who attacked Kut's city hall, police stations and national guard barracks, said a statement from the Polish-led force in the area. Kut fell briefly to the Mehdi Army in the spring during Sadr's first uprising against foreign troops.

Meanwhile, the US military says two US marines were killed and three people wounded when a helicopter crashed in a volatile region west of Baghdad on Wednesday night.

It said the helicopter was flying in support of "security and stabilisation operations" in al Anbar province when it came down. No enemy fire was observed in the vicinity of the aircraft, it added. "The cause of the mishap is currently under investigation," the US military said in a statement. Source: AFP

U.S. Planes, Forces Attack Sadr's House in Najaf

NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. warplanes bombed targets near the house of radical Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in the holy city of Najaf Thursday as U.S. Marines battled militiamen in the area, witnesses said.

They said plumes of black smoke billowed as the combatants exchanged heavy fire. There was no immediate word on whether the cleric was at the house.

U.S. forces launched an assault in Najaf to end a weeklong rebellion in the city. Sadr had asked his militiamen earlier this week to fight on even if he was killed or captured.

U.S. Marines Seize Center of Najaf, Fighting Rages

By Khaled Farhan

NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. marines backed by tanks and aircraft seized the heart of the holy Iraqi city of Najaf on Thursday in a major assault on Shi'ite rebels, but they kept out of a site sacred to millions of Shi'ites around the world.

Warplanes and Apache helicopters pounded militia positions in a cemetery near the Imam Ali Mosque, igniting protests in at least two other cities as an uprising that has killed hundreds across southern and central Iraq entered its second week.

The assault against the Mehdi Army of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and growing anger among the majority Shi'ite community could spark a firestorm for interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi should holy sites be damaged or the death toll escalate.

Late in the afternoon, U.S. warplanes bombed targets near Sadr's house as U.S. marines battled militiamen in the area, witnesses said. Black smoke billowed as combatants exchanged heavy fire. Sadr's whereabouts were unknown.

Tightening their grip on the city, marines blocked entry to the Imam Ali Mosque, one of Shi'ite Islam's holiest sites and where many militia have holed up.

In the southeastern city of Kut, at least 72 people were killed in U.S. air raids and fighting between Iraqi police and the Mehdi Army on Thursday, the Health Ministry said.

It said 25 people were killed in clashes in Baghdad and 21 in other cities in the past 24 hours. There were no immediate casualty figures from the Najaf offensive.

Protests broke out in Baghdad, where Shi'ite militiamen attacked a police station, and the southern city of Basra after the start of the offensive, aimed at crushing the heart of a radical Shi'ite Muslim rebellion that has hit seven cities.

The U.S. military said the assault would exclude the Imam Ali Mosque. A spokesman for Iraq's Interior Ministry told CNN that Iraqi forces alone would disarm militia holed up inside.

But the Mehdi Army raised the prospect of a bloody battle, vowing no surrender and saying Sadr was leading the defense at the shrine and vast cemetery, one of the Middle East's largest.

"The morale of the fighters is very high," said Ahmed al-Shibani, a senior Sadr spokesman in Najaf.

OIL MARKETS NERVOUS

A threat by Sadr's militia kept a main southern oil export pipeline shut on Thursday although crews had repaired it after sabotage stopped operations for three days, an official said.

A senior official from Sadr's Mehdi Army, Sheikh Asaad al-Basri, had warned that militiamen would blow up pipelines in the south if U.S. forces tried to storm their Najaf bases.

Oil prices stayed close to record levels after the threat. U.S. light crude rose 12 cents to $44.92 a barrel, just 12 cents below Tuesday's record of $45.04 for New York crude futures.

Militiamen responded to the American assault in Najaf with rocket-propelled grenades and mortar bombs, firing at times from inside the walls of the Imam Ali Mosque.

Many civilians fled the center of the southern city, some escaping on carts pulled by donkeys.

Analysts warned of a backlash even if the shrine was undamaged and the militia beaten in Najaf. They said resentment could fester and pose long-term consequences for Allawi.

"This has the potential to be a highly destructive bout of fighting," said Gareth Stansfield, a Middle East expert at London's Royal Institute of International Affairs.

"It's not just the physical damage, it's the symbolism of the Americans being in Najaf as well that is damaging."

PROTESTS ERUPT

Some 2,000 U.S. servicemen and 1,800 Iraq security men are deployed around Najaf, a city of 600,000 about 160 km (100 miles) south of Baghdad.

The U.S. military said Iraqi forces were actively involved in the offensive, although witnesses said American troops were doing most of the fighting.

As news of the offensive filtered in, thousands of Shi'ites took to the streets in Basra and a Baghdad district to protest.

"Long live Sadr, America and Allawi are infidels," thousands of protesters in Basra chanted.

A Reuters photographer said he had seen dozens of dead militiamen in civilian houses in Najaf. He said the bodies had been taken from the battle zone and covered in ice to preserve them before burial. It was unclear when they had been killed.

Iraq's most influential Shi'ite cleric, who is in London undergoing medical treatment, called for the holy city of Najaf, his hometown, to be respected, an aide said.

"Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani is pained and very sad about what is happening in holy Najaf," Murtada al-Kashmiri told Reuters.

Despite the tightening military noose in Najaf, Sadr has ordered his men to keep fighting if he is killed or captured. The latest fighting has shattered a two-month truce between U.S. forces and their most vocal critic in Iraq.

U.S. forces say they have killed 360 Sadr loyalists so far in Najaf. Sadr's spokesmen say far fewer have died in what is the second rebellion by the militia in four months.

A British soldier was also killed when a roadside bomb exploded near his patrol in Basra, the British military said.

(With additional reporting by Nadim Ladki and Waleed Ibrahim in Baghdad, Katherine Baldwin in London, Miral Fahmy in Dubai)

Soldiers accompanied by armoured vehicles lift concrete barriers into place in al-Habibiyah, a neighbourhood bordering Sadr City as U.S. troops began to close roads into the mainly Shiite neighbourhood in Baghdad, Iraq Wednesday Aug. 11, 2004. Al-Sadr's Mahdi Army engaged US forces for the seventh consecutive day in a number of Shiite strongholds in Baghdad and southern Iraq. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)

The cemetery of Najaf, 75 miles south of Baghdad, is seen this May 10, 2003 file photo. One of the largest cemeteries in the Muslim world has become an eerie battleground for U.S. troops who have fought Shiite guerrillas for nearly a week in Najaf. For dozens of Iraqis and a handful of Americans, it's also become a graveyard. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

The area around the shrine of Imam Ali mausoleum in the city of Najaf is deserted. US warplanes led an assault on the heart of Najaf after US troops and Iraqi security forces sealed entrances to the Imam Ali mausoleum as part of an operation to flush out militia loyal to radical cleric Moqtada Sadr(AFP/Ahmad Al-Rubaye)

A militiman of radical Iraqi Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada Sadr's Mehdi Army stands near the deserted area of the shrine of Imam Ali in the city of Najaf. Clashes in Iraq left 165 dead and nearly 600 wounded in 24 hours of violence including 75 killed and nearly 150 wounded in heavy US overnight bombing of Kut(AFP/Ahmad Al-Rubaye)

An American soldier stands guard next to detained Iraqi men as the sound of heavy gun battles resonated throughout the holy city of Najaf in southern Iraq on Thursday, Aug. 12, 2004. U.S. forces launched a major offensive to crush a militia loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The fighting between U.S. forces and al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia began here a week ago and has spread to other Shiite areas of the country. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

An American soldier frisks an Iraqi man at a security checkpoint set by American soldiers as the sound of heavy gun battles resonated throughout the holy city of Najaf in southern Iraq on Thursday, Aug. 12, 2004. U.S. forces launched a major offensive to crush a militia loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The fighting between U.S. forces and al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia began here a week ago and has spread to other Shiite areas of the country. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

An Iraqi civilian covers the body of his neighbor with a blanket after he was killed in the crossfire as heavy gun battles resonated throughout the holy city of Najaf in southern Iraq on Thursday, Aug. 12, 2004. The fighting between U.S. forces and al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia began here a week ago and has spread to other Shiite areas of the country. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

Iraqi Shi'ites take to the streets of the southern city of Basra to protest against ongoing conflict in Najaf August 12, 2004. U.S. marines backed by aircraft and tanks launched a major offensive to crush a Shi'ite militia rebellion in the holy Iraqi city of Najaf, igniting mass street protests in at least two other cities. Photo by Atef Hassan/Reuters

British troops on patrol near Basra. A shadowy Shiite militant group in the southern Iraqi city of Basra warned that it will kill all those working with British troops controlling the region.(AFP/File/Saeed Khan)

A video image shows U.S.-led forces on patrol in Najaf, August 12, 2004. U.S. Marines, backed by tanks and aircraft, seized the heart of the holy Iraqi city of Najaf on Thursday in a major assault on Shi'ite rebels, but they kept out of a site sacred to millions of Shi'ites around the world. REUTERS/Reuters TV

Smoke billows over the the skyline as the sound of heavy gun battles resonates throughout the holy city of Najaf in southern Iraq Thursday, Aug. 12, 2004. U.S. forces launched a major offensive to crush a militia loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The fighting between U.S. forces and al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia began here a week ago and has spread to other Shiite areas of the country. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)

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