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US marines take center of Najaf, protests erupt
U.S. marines backed by tanks and aircraft seized the heart of the holy Iraqi city of Najaf on Thursday in a major assault on Shi'ite rebels, but they kept out of a site sacred to millions of Shi'ites around the world.
The assault against the Mehdi Army of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and growing anger among the majority Shi'ite community could spark a firestorm for interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi should holy sites be damaged or the death toll escalate.
Thick black smoke poured into the sky as helicopters skimmed mud-brick rooftops in the heart of Najaf. Soon after midday, marines controlled the city center and had blocked entry to the mosque, one of Shi'ite Islam's holiest sites, a witness said.
In the southeastern city of Kut, at least 72 people were killed in U.S. air raids and fighting between Iraqi police and the Mehdi Army on Thursday, the Health Ministry said.
It said 25 people were killed in clashes in Baghdad and 21 in other cities in the past 24 hours. There were no immediate casualty figures from the Najaf offensive.
Protests broke out in Baghdad and the southern city of Basra after the offensive began, aimed at crushing the heart of a radical Shi'ite Muslim rebellion that has hit seven cities.
But the Mehdi Army raised the prospect of a bloody battle, vowing no surrender and saying Sadr was leading the defense at the shrine and vast cemetery, one of the Middle East's largest.
"The morale of the fighters is very high," said Ahmed al-Shibani, a senior Sadr spokesman in Najaf.
OIL MARKETS NERVOUS
U.S. marines made clear their intentions, broadcasting a message in Arabic from Humvees that said: "To the residents of Najaf: Coalition forces are purging the city of Mehdi Army."
A threat by Sadr's militia kept a main southern oil export pipeline shut on Thursday although crews had repaired it after sabotage stopped operations for three days, an official said.
A senior official from Sadr's Mehdi Army, Sheikh Asaad al-Basri, had warned that militiamen would blow up pipelines in the south if U.S. forces tried to storm their Najaf bases.
Oil prices stayed close to record levels after the threat. U.S. light crude rose 12 cents to $44.92 a barrel, just 12 cents below Tuesday's record of $45.04 for New York crude futures.
Militiamen responded to the American assault in Najaf with rocket-propelled grenades and mortar bombs, firing at times from inside the walls of the Imam Ali Mosque.
Witnesses said thousands of civilians fled the center of the southern city. The U.S. military said the figure was much lower. Some residents escaped on carts pulled by donkeys and by late morning many streets were deserted.
Analysts warned of a backlash even if the shrine was undamaged and the militia beaten in Najaf. They said resentment could fester and pose long-term consequences for Allawi, who has said nothing publicly on the crisis since Sunday. "This has the potential to be a highly destructive bout of fighting," said Gareth Stansfield, a Middle East expert at London's Royal Institute of International Affairs. "It's not just the physical damage, it's the symbolism of the Americans being in Najaf as well that is damaging." PROTESTS ERUPT Some 2,000 U.S. servicemen and 1,800 Iraq security men are deployed around Najaf, a city of 600,000 about 160 km (100 miles) south of Baghdad. The U.S. military said Iraqi forces were actively involved in the offensive, although witnesses said American troops were doing most of the fighting.
As news of the offensive filtered in, thousands of Shi'ites took to the streets in Basra and a Baghdad district to protest. "Long live Sadr, America and Allawi are infidels," thousands of protesters in Basra chanted. A similar protest took place in Baghdad's Shi'ite neighborhood of Kadhimiyah. A Reuters photographer said he had seen dozens of dead militiamen in civilian houses in Najaf. He said the bodies had been taken from the battle zone and covered in ice to preserve them before burial. It was unclear when they had been killed. Iraq's most influential Shi'ite cleric, who is in London undergoing medical treatment, called for the holy city of Najaf, his hometown, to be respected, an aide said. "Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani is pained and very sad about what is happening in holy Najaf," Murtada al-Kashmiri told Reuters. Despite the tightening military noose in Najaf, Sadr has ordered his men to keep fighting if he is killed or captured. The latest fighting has shattered a two-month truce between U.S. forces and their most vocal critic in Iraq. U.S. forces say they have killed 360 Sadr loyalists so far in Najaf. Sadr's spokesmen say far fewer have died in what is the second rebellion by the militia in four months. |
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