- Some 2,500 U.S. force personel, backed by tanks and artillery,
entered to the outskirts of the Shiite holy city of Najaf on Tuesday for
a showdown with Moqtada al-Sadr.
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- The top U.S. commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez,
said their mission was to "capture or kill" radical Shiite cleric
Muqtada al-Sadr.
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- Gen. John Abizaid, the top commander of U.S. forces in
the Middle East, said he has asked Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld
to adjust the U.S. troop rotation into and out of Iraq this spring so that
U.S. commanders can have the use of perhaps 10,000 more soldiers than they
otherwise would have.
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- On the way to Najaf, the U.S. force's 80-vehicle convoy
was ambushed Monday night by gunmen firing small arms and setting off roadside
bombs north of the city. One soldier was killed and an American civilian
contractor was wounded, officers in the convoy said.
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- Iraqi leaders launched negotiations aimed at averting
a U.S. assault on the city, site of the holiest Shiite site, the Imam Ali
Shrine. Al-Sadr was photographed by Associated Press Television News leaving
the shrine Tuesday.
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- "They agreed not to allow any hostile act against
Sayyed Moqtada al-Sadr and the city of Najaf," said a person at the
meeting, speaking on condition of anonymity.
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- The delegation also was reportedly trying to work out
a compromise to prevent a U.S. attack.
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- Col. Dana J.H. Pittard, the commander of the force, said
his troops were aware that a "single shot in Najaf" by U.S. soldiers
could outrage Iraq's powerful Shiite majority.
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- "Look at this as the Shiite Vatican," Pittard
said before the deployment.
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