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Excerpt - BAGHDAD, March 28 (Reuters) - Fighters loyal to Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr have seized the centre of the southern Nassiriya city, a Reuters witness said on Friday. A four-day-old Iraqi army crackdown on Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army in Basra, Iraq's second city and its gateway to the Gulf, has sparked fighting across the south and in Baghdad. In the capital, Iraqi lawmakers were due to hold an emergency session in a bid to end violence in the flashpoint oil city of Basra, where Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki gave militants a new deadline to hand over their...

Iraqis welcome U.S. Marines in Shatra By Sean Maguire SHATRA, Iraq, March 31 (Reuters) - Hundreds of Iraqis shouting "Welcome to Iraq" greeted U.S. Marines who entered the town of Shatra on Monday after storming it with planes, tanks and helicopter gunships. A foot patrol picked its way through the small southern town, 35 km (20 miles) north of the city of Nassiriya, after being beckoned in by a crowd of people. "There's no problem here. We are happy to see Americans," one young man shouted. The welcome was a tonic for soldiers who have not always received the warm...

10:35 a.m. Monday US Time UNCONFIRMED but initial report:According to the Russian language site of "al Jazeera" (www.aljazeera.ru), they claim just now that "Chemical Ali", the feared cousin of Saddam Hussein, was killed this morning in Ashtent (Shatra?) north of an-Nasiriyah. Here is the flash news dispatch, below. We would need a Freeper with good Russian skills to go to the original Russian at www.aljazeera.ru to check it. Also, it could be disinformation, saying he is killed in order to create confusion. But the twitch in my left foot tells me that the US Marines got this key Iraqi commander...

American marines today launched a massive raid on an Iraqi town in a bid to kill or capture the notorious commander known as Chemical Ali. Planes, helicopter gunships and tanks pounded Shatra, north of Nasiriyah, where Ali Hassan al-Majeed was believed to be hiding. Then scores of marines swooped on a series of compounds, including the Ba'ath party headquarters, in the search for him. Ali was thought to be in Shatra with other senior Saddam henchmen, directing the paramilitary Fedayeen who have been harrying British and American forces. Under cover of darkness, aircraft dropped precision-guided bombs on buildings in the...

SHATRA, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. Marines have launched a dawn raid on the town of Shatra, north of Nassiriya, aiming to kill senior Iraqi officials they believe are directing guerrilla attacks, Reuters correspondent Sean Maguire has reported. Among those targeted was Ali Hassan al-Majeed, or "Chemical Ali", the cousin whom President Saddam Hussein has put in charge of the southern front. Majeed earned his nickname for overseeing the use of poison gas against Kurdish villagers in 1988. The Marines were storming the town, about 35 km (20 miles) north of the city of Nassiriya, with warplanes dropping precision-guided bombs, helicopter...

SHATRA, Iraq, March 31 — U.S. Marines launched a dawn raid Monday on the town of Shatra, north of An Nasiriyah, aiming to kill senior Iraqi officials they believe are directing guerrilla attacks. Among the targets was Ali Hassan al-Majeed, or “Chemical Ali,” the cousin whom President Saddam Hussein has put in charge of the southern front. THE MARINES were storming the town, about 20 miles north of the city of An Nasiriyah, with warplanes dropping precision-guided bombs, helicopter gunships and tanks. ...

U.S. Marines leave trail of death on road north By Sean Maguire NORTH OF NASSIRIYA, Iraq, March 26 (Reuters) - U.S. Marines pushing north towards Baghdad left a trail of death on Wednesday as they fought off sporadic Iraqi attacks along the way. This correspondent saw about two dozen corpses among wrecked vehicles littering the road north of Shatra, including a bus with its back end blown off and bodies hanging out of the back. Iraqi small-arms fire had erupted earlier in the town of Shatra, 40 km (25 miles) north of Nassiriya, where the Marines had fought their way...