Iraqi national guardsmen are ready to "cleanse" Najaf's holy Imam Ali shrine of Shiite Muslim militiamen "very soon" unless they leave of their own accord, the city's governor, Adnan al-Zorfi, said yesterday.
"We are going to cleanse the city and the shrine from the militia if they do not leave soon on their own. The Iraqi national guard will move them out of the area and the shrine," Zorfi told reporters.
Earlier yesterday, the 20th day of fighting in Najaf, heavy machine-gun and tank fire pummelled the Old City in the streets around the Imam Ali shrine, one of the holiest Shiite Muslim mosques in the world.
Humvees and tanks crawled through the bombed-out streets just 200m away, as dozens of Iraqi national guardsmen were deployed in the area for the first time.
"The Iraqi national guard are 300m outside the shrine. We are ready and waiting for the go-ahead from Baghdad," Zorfi said, refusing to say when the assault would happen, only that it will be "very soon."
"No American troops will be allowed to get in. It will be entirely an Iraqi forces operation," the governor said.
Defense Minister Hazem al-Shaalan is in Najaf, an aide at his office said.
"They're accelerating the rate of the attack," an interior ministry spokesman said earlier, when asked about the Iraqi deployment in Najaf.
Iraqi government officials have frequently warned that a "final" assault on al-Sadr's Mahdi Army was imminent, insisting that Iraqi troops, not US soldiers, will be used to evict militiamen from the shrine itself if necessary.
Meanwhile, the US military accused militiamen of firing a rocket from the northeast corner of the mosque that may have damaged the shrine.
"The rocket clipped the wall of the shrine and landed approximately 10m north of the wall. The shrine may have sustained damage due to the rocket," a statement said.
A hole 1m across was punched into the outer wall of the shrine compound late Sunday during fighting.
A group linked to al-Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi said it had tried to kill Iraq's environment minister yesterday and warned it would not miss next time, according to an Internet statement.
"This morning, a valiant knight from our suicide brigades set off to strike a pillar of infidelity, Environment Minister Mishkat [Moumin]," said the statement from the Tawhid and Jihad group, which could not be authenticated.
The statement was dated Tuesday and posted on a Web site used by Islamists.
"We would like to tell her and her colleagues that even though she was spared today, we have a lot more arrows in our quiver and we will not miss next time," it added.
Insurgents tried to assassinate Moumin and Education Minister Sami al-Mudhaffar in separate bombings yesterday that killed five of their bodyguards and wounded over a dozen people.
Al-Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad has claimed responsibility for several suicide bombings that have killed Iraqi officials. It has also claimed to have beheaded several hostages, including a Bulgarian and a South Korean.
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