Continued fighting in Najaf dims hope for peace in Iraq

NAJAF – US helicopter gunships pounded positions held by Shi’ite militiamen near Najaf’s Imam Ali shrine overnight, as continued fighting dimmed hope of a peaceful end to the near three-week standoff.

Elsewhere US journalist Micah Garen was released eight days after being taken hostage in southern Iraq, but fears continued to grow for two French journalists and an Italian who have not been heard from since Thursday. Overnight, US helicopters staged at least two attacks on Mehdi Army positions near the mausoleum, and gunfights and mortar blasts continued yesterday, said an AFP correspondent inside the shrine.However, no US tanks could be seen in the immediate surroundings and there were fewer militiamen than usual around the mosque.A dent measuring about one metre square had been punched about 30 centimetres into the shrine’s outer compound wall overnight, with rubble and spent parts of a rocket littered on the marble floor.Supporters of militia leader and fanatical cleric Moqtada Sadr said it had been caused by a helicopter missile, but the US military denied that the shrine had been targeted.The hotel is a known resting place for captains in the Mehdi Army.”US forces responded to hostile fire, but the fire was not directed at the shrine.It did not hit the wall or any other holy site in the area,” a US military spokesman said.One person was killed and three wounded in overnight violence, said a doctor at the Imam Ali’s clinic, with another four patients brought in since daybreak.Three days after an agreement was announced for Sadr’s fighters to hand over the keys to the shrine to representatives of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq’s top Shi’ite religious authority, the deal was still in limbo.”There is no fresh development (on the handover)…There is contact between them and us, but there are differences on forming the committee due to the security situation but we are awaiting their response,” said Shaibani.The Mehdi Army has occupied the complex, one of the holiest sites in the Shi’ite world, since their April uprising, and 73-year-old Sistani is recovering in London after medical treatment.He has been reluctant to take back the shrine without ensuring that nothing is missing, and the Mehdi Army is unwilling to surrender control amid any suggestion of impropriety.- Nampa-AFPOvernight, US helicopters staged at least two attacks on Mehdi Army positions near the mausoleum, and gunfights and mortar blasts continued yesterday, said an AFP correspondent inside the shrine.However, no US tanks could be seen in the immediate surroundings and there were fewer militiamen than usual around the mosque.A dent measuring about one metre square had been punched about 30 centimetres into the shrine’s outer compound wall overnight, with rubble and spent parts of a rocket littered on the marble floor.Supporters of militia leader and fanatical cleric Moqtada Sadr said it had been caused by a helicopter missile, but the US military denied that the shrine had been targeted.The hotel is a known resting place for captains in the Mehdi Army.”US forces responded to hostile fire, but the fire was not directed at the shrine.It did not hit the wall or any other holy site in the area,” a US military spokesman said.One person was killed and three wounded in overnight violence, said a doctor at the Imam Ali’s clinic, with another four patients brought in since daybreak.Three days after an agreement was announced for Sadr’s fighters to hand over the keys to the shrine to representatives of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq’s top Shi’ite religious authority, the deal was still in limbo.”There is no fresh development (on the handover)…There is contact between them and us, but there are differences on forming the committee due to the security situation but we are awaiting their response,” said Shaibani.The Mehdi Army has occupied the complex, one of the holiest sites in the Shi’ite world, since their April uprising, and 73-year-old Sistani is recovering in London after medical treatment.He has been reluctant to take back the shrine without ensuring that nothing is missing, and the Mehdi Army is unwilling to surrender control amid any suggestion of impropriety.- Nampa-AFP