US military says 360 dead in Najaf fighting

BAGHDAD – At least 360 militants have been killed in the past four days of fighting between US troops and Shi’ite militiamen in the holy city of Najaf, a senior US military official said yesterday.

The official, who asked not to be identified, said the toll included fighting up until late on Sunday. He said US troops were not actively pursuing rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, the leader of a militia calling itself the Mehdi Army.Meanwhile, Radical Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr yesterday defied a demand from Iraq’s interim government that his militia quit Najaf, after US forces tightened their noose around the holy city in heavy fighting.”The Mehdi Army and I will keep resisting.I will stay in holy Najaf and will never leave,” Sadr told a news conference at Najaf’s holiest shrine, the Imam Ali mosque.In a move that rocked Iraq’s political establishment, an Iraqi judge issued arrest warrants against leading politician and former Pentagon darling Ahmad Chalabi and his nephew Salem Chalabi, the head of the tribunal trying Saddam Hussein.Explosions and gunfire echoed yesterday from the heart of Najaf, Iraq’s holiest Shi’ite Muslim city 160 km south of Baghdad.A new Shi’ite uprising has claimed hundreds of casualties in the past five days, piling pressure on interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.A Health Ministry official said 16 people had been killed in fighting in the past 24 hours in Iraq.But this did not include Najaf, where violence shut down most of the city.A suicide car bomb exploded outside the house of an official in the village of Balad Ruz north of Baghdad on Monday, killing seven police and wounding 17 people, police and the US military said.The deputy governor for Diala province Akil Hamed was among the wounded.Allawi visited shell-scarred Najaf on Sunday and demanded militiamen loyal to al-Sadr leave their positions around holy sites and an ancient cemetery.Yesterday, smoke rose from several places near the cemetery, scene of close-quarter fighting in recent days, as US aircraft flew overhead, Reuters witnesses said.- Nampa-ReutersHe said US troops were not actively pursuing rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, the leader of a militia calling itself the Mehdi Army.Meanwhile, Radical Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr yesterday defied a demand from Iraq’s interim government that his militia quit Najaf, after US forces tightened their noose around the holy city in heavy fighting.”The Mehdi Army and I will keep resisting.I will stay in holy Najaf and will never leave,” Sadr told a news conference at Najaf’s holiest shrine, the Imam Ali mosque.In a move that rocked Iraq’s political establishment, an Iraqi judge issued arrest warrants against leading politician and former Pentagon darling Ahmad Chalabi and his nephew Salem Chalabi, the head of the tribunal trying Saddam Hussein.Explosions and gunfire echoed yesterday from the heart of Najaf, Iraq’s holiest Shi’ite Muslim city 160 km south of Baghdad.A new Shi’ite uprising has claimed hundreds of casualties in the past five days, piling pressure on interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.A Health Ministry official said 16 people had been killed in fighting in the past 24 hours in Iraq.But this did not include Najaf, where violence shut down most of the city.A suicide car bomb exploded outside the house of an official in the village of Balad Ruz north of Baghdad on Monday, killing seven police and wounding 17 people, police and the US military said.The deputy governor for Diala province Akil Hamed was among the wounded.Allawi visited shell-scarred Najaf on Sunday and demanded militiamen loyal to al-Sadr leave their positions around holy sites and an ancient cemetery.Yesterday, smoke rose from several places near the cemetery, scene of close-quarter fighting in recent days, as US aircraft flew overhead, Reuters witnesses said.- Nampa-Reuters