US helicopter gunships opened fire on Shiite militants hiding in Najaf's massive cemetery yesterday as US patrols armed with speakers warned the militants to leave the city immediately or face death.
US tanks drove into the cemetery, explosions shook the streets and black smoke rose over parts of the city, but the fighting with militant Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army militia appeared more sporadic than in recent days.
A large fire broke out at a hotel about 300m from the Imam Ali Shrine, Najaf's holiest site, which fighters have reportedly been using as a base. Witnesses said insurgents were firing from inside the hotel when US forces returned fire.
In a new tactic to try to quell the violence, US military vehicles equipped with loudspeakers drove through the streets warning residents to stay away from the fighting and for militants to put down their weapons and leave Najaf or else they would be killed.
"We ask residents to cooperate with the Iraqi army and police," said a voice through a loudspeaker. "There will be no truce or negotiations with terrorists."
Small clashes also broke out in the Baghdad Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City, despite a nighttime curfew that was imposed on Monday.
Mehdi Army militants have been targeting US patrols with gunfire and have tried to set up roadblocks in the neighborhood, but US forces tore them down, said US Captain Brian O'Malley of the 1st Brigade Combat Team. There were no US casualties, he said.
While US and Iraqi forces were trying to quell the eruption of Shiite violence, attacks by Sunni Muslim militants persisted.
A roadside bomb detonated as a US military vehicle drove on a street in central Baghdad yesterday, slightly injuring two soldiers, the military said.
Another insurgent group also warned in a videotaped message that it would launch a campaign of attacks on government offices in Baghdad starting yesterday, telling employees to stay away.
The sixth day of Shiite violence came after al-Sadr warned on Monday that he would fight "until the last drop of my blood has been spilled."
Clashes intensified around Basra, where a British soldier was killed and several others wounded in fighting with militia near the cleric's office on Monday, the UK's Ministry of Defense said. Three militants were killed and more than 10 others wounded, a senior Iraqi police official said.
US President George W. Bush said on Monday that coalition forces were "making pretty good progress about stabilizing Najaf."
Much of the fighting in Najaf remained centered on the vast cemetery near the Imam Ali Shrine. The US military said Mehdi Army gunmen were launching attacks from the cemetery and then running to take refuge in the shrine compound.
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