Tension mounts in Najaf and Fallujah

BAGHDAD – US forces waited outside Najaf yesterday with no sign of a breakthrough in efforts to avert a bloody confrontation with rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in an Iraqi city holy to the world’s Shi’ite Muslims.

Fallujah, Iraq’s other main flashpoint and a bastion for Sunni Muslim insurgents, was enjoying a second day of calm. But five civilians were killed as they tried to escape overnight shelling by US forces in the nearby town of Karma, witnesses said.The U.S.military said an American soldier had been killed and two wounded when their patrol hit an anti-tank mine near Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit on Friday.Since March 31, at least 94 US soldiers have died in action in Iraq – more than were killed during the three weeks last year between the invasion of Iraq and the fall of Saddam.Tension remained high in Najaf, where 2 500 US troops are poised nearby with orders to kill or capture Sadr.A spokesman for the fiery cleric said on Saturday that negotiations were at a dead end.A US spokesman denied any direct talks had taken place, although he said Iraq’s US-led administration was keen to avoid bloodshed in Najaf.Caught in the face-off between US troops and Sadr’s Mehdi Army militia, Najaf residents complained their lives and livelihoods were at risk with shops closed and streets around the city’s shrines crowded with gunmen instead of pilgrims.Sadr’s supporters say Iraq’s top Shi’ite clerics back the uprising they staged this month against the US-led occupiers.”We know that any assault from the Americans on the holy city of Najaf will be the zero hour for the revolution all over Iraq,” said Sadr’s spokesman, Qays al-Khazali.”The religious authority has a clear stand in providing us with moral support.”But representatives of Najaf’s four grand ayatollahs have distanced themselves from the junior cleric’s actions.”Moqtada did not consult the religious authority when he started this crisis or when he created the Mehdi Army,” said a spokesman for Grand Ayatollah Ishaq al-Fayadh.US officials say Sadr, wanted in connection with the murder of a moderate Shi’ite cleric a year ago, must face justice in an Iraqi court and disarm his ragtag militia.The Americans are also demanding that fighters in Fallujah lay down their guns before US Marines lift their siege of the city of 300 000, an Iraqi mediator said.- Nampa-ReutersBut five civilians were killed as they tried to escape overnight shelling by US forces in the nearby town of Karma, witnesses said.The U.S.military said an American soldier had been killed and two wounded when their patrol hit an anti-tank mine near Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit on Friday.Since March 31, at least 94 US soldiers have died in action in Iraq – more than were killed during the three weeks last year between the invasion of Iraq and the fall of Saddam.Tension remained high in Najaf, where 2 500 US troops are poised nearby with orders to kill or capture Sadr.A spokesman for the fiery cleric said on Saturday that negotiations were at a dead end.A US spokesman denied any direct talks had taken place, although he said Iraq’s US-led administration was keen to avoid bloodshed in Najaf.Caught in the face-off between US troops and Sadr’s Mehdi Army militia, Najaf residents complained their lives and livelihoods were at risk with shops closed and streets around the city’s shrines crowded with gunmen instead of pilgrims.Sadr’s supporters say Iraq’s top Shi’ite clerics back the uprising they staged this month against the US-led occupiers.”We know that any assault from the Americans on the holy city of Najaf will be the zero hour for the revolution all over Iraq,” said Sadr’s spokesman, Qays al-Khazali.”The religious authority has a clear stand in providing us with moral support.”But representatives of Najaf’s four grand ayatollahs have distanced themselves from the junior cleric’s actions.”Moqtada did not consult the religious authority when he started this crisis or when he created the Mehdi Army,” said a spokesman for Grand Ayatollah Ishaq al-Fayadh.US officials say Sadr, wanted in connection with the murder of a moderate Shi’ite cleric a year ago, must face justice in an Iraqi court and disarm his ragtag militia.The Americans are also demanding that fighters in Fallujah lay down their guns before US Marines lift their siege of the city of 300 000, an Iraqi mediator said.- Nampa-Reuters