American Tanks Charge Into Najaf NAJAF, Iraq - Backed by helicopters, American tanks charged into the center of this holy city on Friday and blasted positions held by fighters loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who condemned the United States in a sermon. The Shrine of Imam Ali, one of the most sacred sites for Shiite Muslims, was slightly damaged in the fighting.
Four Iraqis died and 26 were wounded, said Haidar Raheem Naama, an official at the city's main hospital. He said most were civilians. At least three militiamen were killed, and their coffins were brought to the shrine for family and friends to pray for their souls. "America is the enemy of God!" their fellow fighters shouted. Explosions and heavy machine gun fire rocked Najaf neighborhoods for hours, and bands of militiamen with assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and mortar tubes roamed the city. Smoke billowed from blasted buildings. After an afternoon lull, sporadic shelling and machine gun fire resumed as night fell. Four holes, each about 12 inches long and 8 inches wide, were visible on the golden dome of the Imam Ali mosque. They appeared to have been caused by machine gun fire. Militia members blamed American forces for the damage, but Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the chief U.S. military spokesman in Iraq (news - web sites), said al-Sadr's men were probably responsible: "I can just tell you by the looks of where we were firing and where Muqtada's militia was firing, I would put my money that Muqtada caused it." At a news conference in Baghdad, Kimmitt pointed to a map of Najaf and said that a U.S. convoy might have been fired on from a cemetery as it moved near the shrine. If so, those rounds could have hit the shrine, he said. "If our forces were coming down this road and were being shot at from the cemetery from north to south, ... go ask Muqtada who put that hole in the shrine," Kimmitt said. "The coalition does not yet have ammunition that can shoot to the north and then turn around and head south." Kimmitt accused the militia of using religious sites "much like human shields." He also said U.S. troops were responding to attacks by militiamen and were not launching an all-out assault on the city. During their crackdown on al-Sadr's militia, U.S. forces have been careful to avoid damage to shrines in Najaf and other holy cities for fear of enraging Iraq's Shiite majority. However, in some areas, they have attacked mosques where insurgents have set up fighting positions. An office that belongs to Al-Sadr close to the Imam Ali shrine took small arms fire, according to a man who answered the telephone there. The man said he believed the shots came from rival Shiite groups opposed to al-Sadr's presence in the city. Al-Sadr spokesman, Qays al- Khaz'ali, however, denied that supporters of rival Shiite groups attacked al-Mahdi Army militiamen or any al-Sadr offices. Nearly 300 fighters from al-Sadr's militia gathered outside the al- Sadr office after fighting ebbed in the late afternoon, chanting slogans in support of their leader. Some carried what they said were parts of U.S. military hardware, including what resembled the door of a Humvee and empty ammunition belts. "Our morale is sky-high and we are not scared of anyone," said a militiaman who only gave his first name, Mahdi. "We will die for sayed Muqtada," he said, using the title "sayed" that is reserved for descendants of the Prophet Muhammad. Arab television stations reported that an aide to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric, had urged U.S. forces and al-Sadr fighters to leave Najaf. The aide was identified as Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Mahdi. The U.S. attack represented the strongest U.S. push yet against al- Sadr, whose forces fought intense battles with American forces this week in another holy city, Karbala. Much of the fighting in Najaf happened in the city's vast cemetery, a maze of footpaths and tombs that offers ample hiding space for militiamen. Several tanks rumbled into the cemetery, known as the "Valley of Peace" and thought to be the world's largest. A hotel in the city center where many international journalists were staying was hit by gunfire, which ruptured the rooftop water tank and blew a hole the size of a soccer ball in the ledge. Several rounds struck rooms, but there were no injuries. In Baghdad, al-Sadr's aides called on Shiites in the capital to travel to Najaf to reinforce the militia there. In the southern city of Amarah, an al-Sadr representative, Farqad al-Mousawi, warned Iraqi police and civil defense corps members that they risked assassination if they helped American soldiers fight the al-Mahdi militia. Al-Sadr's representative in the southern city of Basra, Sheik Abdul- Sattar al-Bahadli, said he would form suicide squads to carry out attacks against coalition forces and urged residents to register for the squads, starting Saturday. Al-Sadr's representative in Nassiriyah, Sheik Aws al-Khafaji, threatened attacks on coalition forces there, most of whom are Italians. Armed men entered the governor's office and milled around police stations and key bridges over the Euphrates river, and residents described the situation there as tense. Kimmitt, however, said coalition troops "have things under control at this point." Explosions and gunfire rocked Karbala on Friday as U.S. soldiers again clashed with militiamen of al-Sadr's al-Mahdi Army. Shops were closed and residents stayed off the streets. Al-Sadr, who faces an arrest warrant in the murder of a moderate rival cleric in April 2003 and launched an uprising against the U.S.- led coalition last month, delivered a sermon at Friday prayers in Kufa, another holy city that lies six miles to the northeast of Najaf. Al-Sadr described President Bush (news - web sites) and British Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites) as "the heads of tyranny." He said the two leaders had paid attention to what he described as the "fabricated" case of Nicholas Berg, an American civilian who was beheaded by militants, and had ignored the suffering of Iraqis in prisons controlled by coalition troops. Also Friday, Kimmitt said the U.S. Army has filed criminal charges, including adultery, maltreatment of detainees and committing indecent acts, against Military Police Cpl. Charles A. Graner in connection with the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal. He will be arraigned May 20 but no trial date has been set, Kimmitt added. Three other military police face charges in the scandal. The United States released 293 Iraqi detainees from Abu Ghraib on Friday. The coalition periodically releases prisoners from Abu Ghraib, the notorious Saddam-era jail on the western outskirts of Baghdad. There are more than 3,000 prisoners at the jail. Images of abuse were taken by American military guards at the prison ------------------------ Yahoo! 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