US forces and Shiite militants fought fierce battles yesterday marked by explosions and gunfire near a revered shrine in Najaf, as the US military stepped up pressure on the insurgents to quickly hand over the holy site to Shiite religious authorities.
Tanks approached within 250m of the Imam Ali Shrine, where many militants have sought refuge, which was the closest they have come to the compound in recent days. US snipers were on rooftops around the shrine, witnesses said.
Gunfire rang throughout the streets and black smoke rose over the Old City neighborhood, where much of the fighting has been centered. Earlier yesterday, militants fired mortars at US troops, who responded with artillery, residents said.
The size of the militant force in the Old City appeared to have greatly decreased yesterday with the US advance, witnesses said. Militant medical officials said at least two insurgents were killed and four others injured.
In Baghdad's heavily Shiite Sadr City neighborhood, an explosion, apparently from a US air attack, killed four people and injured nine others yesterday, said Qasim Saddam, director of Sadr Hospital. The US military said it was unaware of the incident.
In the southern city of Nasiriyah, US journalist Micah Garen said after his release from more than a week in captivity that he hoped to stay in Iraq to continue working on a documentary pro-ject he had started about the looting of archaeological sites.
"This experience hasn't made me want to leave at all," Garen said late on Sunday. He also thanked radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr for helping free him from his captors.
Late on Sunday, US warplanes and helicopters attacked positions in Najaf's Old City for the second night, witnesses said. Militant leaders said the Imam Ali Shrine compound's outer walls were damaged in the attacks. The US military said it had fired on sites south of the shrine, from which militants were shooting, and did not hit the compound wall.
The renewed clashes in Najaf appeared more intense than in recent days as US forces sealed off the Old City. But Iraqi government officials counseled patience, saying they intended to resolve the crisis without raiding the shrine, one of the holiest Shiite sites.
"The government will leave no stone unturned to reach a peaceful settlement," Iraqi national security adviser Mouaffaq al-Rubaie said. "It has no intention or interest in killing more people or having even the most trivial damage to the shrine. We have a vested interest in a peaceful settlement."
The crisis in Najaf, which has spread to other Shiite communities, appeared on the verge of resolution on Friday, when insurgents agreed to turn over the shrine to representatives of Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani.
But the transfer has bogged down over technicalities.
Senior government officials said last week an Iraqi force was preparing to raid the shrine within hours to expel the militants loyal to al-Sadr, but Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi quickly backed off that threat.
Such an operation would anger Shiites across the country and could turn them against the new government as it tries to gain legitimacy and tackle a 16-month insurgency.
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