Sat, Aug 07, 2004 page1

• Fighting spreads to southern Iraq after insurgence widens

  • AP
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  Fighting flared across Iraq on Friday as US-led coalition troops battled militiamen loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in several cities for a second day in an apparent resurgence of the widespread Shiite rebellion that ended two months ago.

  The two days of fighting left dozens dead and wounded over 100 others, witnesses and officials said.

  In the holy city of Najaf in southern Iraq, helicopter gunships pounded militant positions in fierce fighting that started Thursday and spread to other Shiite areas, including Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood.

  Clashes were also reported Friday between US troops and insurgents north of the capital in Samarra.

  Elsewhere, Italian soldiers exchanged gunfire with militants who attacked their positions and a police station in the southern city of Nasiriyah, an Italian military spokesman said.

  The fighting raised fears of a return of the large-scale uprising launched in April by al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia, which at that time battled US and coalition troops in several cities in the first major Shiite violence against the US personnel.

  Al-Sadr's aides called yesterday for a return to the truce and asked for the UN and Iraq's interim government to stop the violence.

  "We call upon the government -- that has announced that it is sovereign -- to intervene to stop the American attacks," Mahmoud al-Sudani, a spokesman of al-Sadr in Baghdad, told reporters.

  In Najaf, 160km south of Baghdad, US choppers attacked militants hiding in a cemetery near the Imam Ali Shrine in the old city at Najaf's center, where smoke could be seen rising.

  Gunfire and explosions rang out as US soldiers and Iraqi policemen advanced toward the area, witnesses said. The streets were otherwise deserted and shops were closed.

  Battles between the two sides in Najaf have killed at least 10 people and wounded 40 others, according to Hussein Hadi of Najaf General Hospital official. The US military said Thursday it had lost one soldier in the battle, killed seven militants and detained dozens of people.

  Ahmed al-Shaibany, an official with al-Sadr's office in Najaf, described the clashes yesterday as "fierce."

  "The area near the [Imam Ali Shrine] is being subjected to a war," he said. "Najaf is being subjected to ... total destruction," he said. "We call on the Islamic world and the civilized world to save the city."

  The US military has accused the militants of hiding in the shrine compound to avoid retaliation by US forces.

  In the southern city of Nasiriyah, assailants attacked Italian troops with automatic weapons, an Italian military spokesman said on condition of anonymity. They also attacked a police station, prompting the local governor to call for Italian military assistance, he said. There were no coalition casualties, the spokesman said.

  The fighting, which lasted until dawn yesterday, killed eight Iraqis, including five militants, and injured 13 others, according to Abdel Khuder al-Tahir, a senior Interior Ministry official.

  "Today, the city is more stable. Policemen and National Guard are in control of government buildings one side of the city, while Italian forces are in control of the other side," he said.
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