Shi’ite militia given hours to surrender

NAJAF, Iraq – Iraq’s defence minister gave Shi’ite militiamen in the holy city of Najaf hours to surrender yesterday, warning that troops were preparing for a major assault to “teach them a lesson they will never forget”.

Explosions and gunfire echoed through the streets as US forces battled Mehdi Army militiamen loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose two-week-old uprising poses the biggest challenge yet to Iraq’s interim government. Sadr’s fighters are taking shelter in Najaf’s Imam Ali shrine, hoping their opponents will not dare to attack one of the holiest sites for Iraq’s majority Shi’ites.But defence minister Hazim al-Shaalan said an assault was imminent.”They have a chance.In the next few hours they have to surrender themselves and their weapons,” Shaalan said in the city after meeting local officials.”We are in the process of completing all our military preparations…We will teach them a lesson they will never forget,” he said.American marines and soldiers have been doing the bulk of the fighting in Najaf, but Shaalan said Iraqi forces had been training to storm the shrine complex and could complete such an operation within hours.”It will be Iraqis who enter the shrine…there will be no American role in this, except giving air protection and protecting some roads leading to the shrine.But the entry (of the shrine) will be 100 percent Iraqi,” Shaalan told Al Arabiya, a pan-Arab television channel, in Najaf.The director of Najaf’s main hospital, Falah al-Muhana, said 29 people had been brought in killed or wounded from the clashes on Wednesday, but there were no precise figures.US casualties are treated at their own bases.Sadr’s uprising has fuelled clashes in other Shi’ite cities in southern Iraq and divided a national conference in Baghdad intended to advance Iraq’s progress towards democracy.Insurgents fired a mortar bomb near the conference venue yesterday, witnesses said.Two more mortars were fired near the interior ministry in Baghdad, a ministry spokesman said.No casualties were reported in either attack.The Baghdad conference was due to announce members of a new council to oversee the interim government later yesterday, the meeting prolonged by disputes over Najaf and wrangling over the makeup of the council.A delegation from the conference flew to Najaf on Tuesday to try to broker an end to the fighting that erupted on August 5, but Sadr refused to meet them.- Nampa-ReutersSadr’s fighters are taking shelter in Najaf’s Imam Ali shrine, hoping their opponents will not dare to attack one of the holiest sites for Iraq’s majority Shi’ites.But defence minister Hazim al-Shaalan said an assault was imminent.”They have a chance.In the next few hours they have to surrender themselves and their weapons,” Shaalan said in the city after meeting local officials.”We are in the process of completing all our military preparations…We will teach them a lesson they will never forget,” he said.American marines and soldiers have been doing the bulk of the fighting in Najaf, but Shaalan said Iraqi forces had been training to storm the shrine complex and could complete such an operation within hours.”It will be Iraqis who enter the shrine…there will be no American role in this, except giving air protection and protecting some roads leading to the shrine.But the entry (of the shrine) will be 100 percent Iraqi,” Shaalan told Al Arabiya, a pan-Arab television channel, in Najaf.The director of Najaf’s main hospital, Falah al-Muhana, said 29 people had been brought in killed or wounded from the clashes on Wednesday, but there were no precise figures.US casualties are treated at their own bases.Sadr’s uprising has fuelled clashes in other Shi’ite cities in southern Iraq and divided a national conference in Baghdad intended to advance Iraq’s progress towards democracy.Insurgents fired a mortar bomb near the conference venue yesterday, witnesses said.Two more mortars were fired near the interior ministry in Baghdad, a ministry spokesman said.No casualties were reported in either attack.The Baghdad conference was due to announce members of a new council to oversee the interim government later yesterday, the meeting prolonged by disputes over Najaf and wrangling over the makeup of the council.A delegation from the conference flew to Najaf on Tuesday to try to broker an end to the fighting that erupted on August 5, but Sadr refused to meet them.- Nampa-Reuters