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US says 300 fighters killed in Najaf battle
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-08-07 00:48
US marines have killed an estimated 300 fighters loyal to a firebrand Iraqi
Shi'ite cleric in fierce clashes around the holy city of Najaf in the past two
days, a senior US officer said on Friday.
A spokesman for radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr denied that many fighters had
been killed. He said 36 militiamen had been killed in several Iraqi cities from
clashes that have fueled fears of a new rebellion of radical Shi'ites.
Smoke rises over
the holy city of Najaf as battles rage between Shi'ite militiaman and
their US Marine and Iraqi security forces, August 6, 2004. US forces
backed by helicopters battled militia loyal to rebel cleric Moqtada
al-Sadr near a cemetery in the holy city, fueling fears of a second
Shi'ite uprising. [Reuters] | The fresh fighting,
which still raged on Friday, marks a major challenge for the interim government
of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and appears to have destroyed a two-month-old
cease-fire between US forces and Sadr's Mehdi militia.
"The number of enemy casualties is 300 KIA (killed in action)," Lieutenant
Colonel Gary Johnston, operations officer for the 11th Marine Expeditionary
Unit, said at a military base near the city, 100 miles south of Baghdad.
Johnston told reporters the Mehdi fighters were badly coordinated and shot at
random against the heavily armed marines who were backed up by helicopter
gunships and fighter planes.
"There is fighting right now. In some ways it is not as intense as
yesterday," he said.
"If you are on the ground, it makes no difference. But the marines are here
and I think you know how they operate. If you kill a marine, the marines are
going to fight back."
US military officials said there were indications that foreign fighters had
joined the Mehdi militia.
Criminal gangs were also involved, they said.
Asked about American casualties, Johnston said there were two dead and 12
wounded from the two days of fighting.
The US-appointed governor of Najaf put the militia death toll at 400, with
1,000 captured. He said he had information that 80 Iranians were fighting
alongside Sadr's militia.
Sheik Raed al-Qathimi, a spokesman for Sadr, rebuffed the American version of
the death toll.
"I categorically deny these American lies," he said.
IRAQI SAYS CAN CONTAIN CONFLICT
British and Italian troops also fought the Mehdi militia across
Shi'ite-dominated southern Iraq -- in Basra, Amara and Nassiriya -- while
fighting raged in Sadr City and Shoula, two Shi'ite districts of Baghdad.
The Health Ministry said fighting in Sadr City alone had killed 20 Iraqis and
wounded 114 since early on Thursday, while in Nassiriya six were dead and 13
wounded.
The flare-up of tension with radical members of Iraq's majority community
comes after Shi'ite militants rose up across south and central Iraq in April and
May.
Iraq's interim government expressed confidence it would deal with the crisis.
"We have every confidence in our new government, our security forces and our
allies to contain this conflict," Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said.
In the previous uprising, hundreds of Iraqis and dozens of US troops were
killed.
Yet Sadr, a young cleric with an ardent following among poor, disaffected
youths, appeared keen to stop the latest fighting. Via another spokesman in
Baghdad, he called for a resumption of a truce struck in June.
"We have no objections to entering negotiations to solve this crisis,"
Mahmoud al-Sudani told reporters. "As I have said in the name of Sayed Sadr, we
want a resumption of the truce."
While Sadr may be popular with frustrated young Shi'ites, many of Iraq's
mainstream community follow Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most influential
Shi'ite cleric in Iraq who has carefully and quietly tried to keep a lid on
Sadr's agitating.
In a worrying move for his followers, Sistani, a 73-year-old Iranian-born
cleric, flew to London on Friday for treatment for a heart problem, sources
said.
MARINES REPLACE ARMY
Tension has been rising in Najaf since Iraqi security forces surrounded
Sadr's house earlier this week.
US marines recently replaced the US Army in Najaf and analysts have
suggested the upsurge in violence is linked to the marines taking a more
aggressive approach with Sadr's militia.
At the same time, attempts by the interim government to draw Sadr into the
mainstream appear to have faltered, which may have prompted the cleric to
redouble his militant approach.
Militiamen shot down a US helicopter as it was trying to evacuate a wounded
soldier on Thursday. No one was killed, but the pilots were wounded.
Early on Friday F-16s, AC-130 gunships and helicopters patrolled the skies
over Najaf, covering U.S. troops battling insurgents in and around Najaf's
cemetery, the largest in the Arab world and a safe haven for militants.
Fighting also flared near Najaf's shrines, some of the holiest in Shi'ite
Islam, and some said that gunfire had damaged the dome of the Imam Ali shrine.
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