Iraqis gather around a car that was allegedly crushed by a US tank in Baghdad's predominantly Shiite Muslim Sadr City neighborhood after a US military OH-58 Delta helicopter made an emergency landing on the edge of the slum where clashes have raged over the past three days between US troops and the Mehdi Army, a militia loyal to radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr. Iraq (news - web sites)'s prime minister ordered Shiite militiamen still holed up in Najaf to leave the holy city as his government reinstated the death penalty and an Iranian diplomat was reported 'detained' by Islamists.(AFP/Karim Sahib)
A U.S. Marines Cobra attack helicopter fires rockets over th city of Najaf, August 8, 2004. The clashes between U.S. troops and men loyal to Shi'ite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr have killed hundreds of people and challenged the authority of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. Iraq (news - web sites)'s interim prime minister ordered Shi'ite fighters to lay down their weapons and leave Najaf on Sunday, but the militiamen fortified their positions around an ancient cemetery with mines. Najaf, 160 km (100 miles) south of Baghdad, is the holiest Shi'ite city in Iraq.