- BAGHDAD -- The interim Iraqi
government last night looked increasingly prepared to impose martial law
on sections of the country as coalition and Iraqi forces fought fierce
battles with armed insurgents loyal to the radical Shia cleric Muqtada
Sadr.
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- There were strong hints that Iyad Allawi, the interim
Prime Minister, could for the first time apply his emergency powers when
he announces plans for tackling the spreading insurgency tomorrow.
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- An American UH-1 helicopter crash-landed after being
hit in the holy Shia city of Najaf during fighting that Falah al-Nakib,
Iraq's Interior Minister, said yesterday had claimed the lives of eight
insurgents. Iraqi medics said seven civilians were killed.
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- Mr Nakib told a swiftly convened news conference yesterday
that he and Mr Allawi had taken "the necessary decisions to confront
these challenges" and charged that the fresh uprising in Najaf and
Wednesday's fighting in Mosul, in the north, were part of an "organised
plan to dismember Iraq and kill the Iraqi people... All of these terrorists
and killers are working for the same organisation regardless of which banners
they carry or which hats they wear".
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- The hints followed a declaration in yesterday's Iraqi
mediaby Sheikh Ghazi al-Yawar, the interim President, that "it is
the time to use the new national safety law" to protect the country
against insurgents. The battles in Najaf, the worst since a conditional
truce two months ago, ended several weeks of fighting between Sadr and
US forces, and triggered further violence when gunmen took control of parts
of the Shia Baghdad suburb of Sadr City and wounded seven US soldiers.
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- In the south of the country, British soldiers were said
by a spokesman for Sadr's forces to have killed one insurgent and injured
three after they ambushed an Army patrol.
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- In Amarah, in the British military zone, insurgents fired
at government buildings after Mehdi Army leaders appealed through mosque
loudspeakers for its members to mobilise.
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- Mr Nakib and a senior US officer were adamant yesterday
that the fighting in Najaf had started because Mehdi Army insurgents had
attacked a police station in the city with mortars, rocket-propelled grenades
and gunfire. The US military source said that Iraqi forces had called in
US forces after repelling two attacks by the insurgents.
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- While Mr Nakib said Iraqi forces were ready to arrest
"all criminals including him [Sadr]", the senior US officer here
said its forces had not been pursuing the detention of Sadr, wanted in
connection with the killing of a rival Shia cleric. The US military has
denied that it deliberately surrounded Sadr's house during engagements
on Tuesday.
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- Striking a bellicose note, Mr Nakib said the Iraqi police
and supporting forces had gained "glorious victories" in the
continuing fighting, and blamed Iraq's neighbours for fuelling the insurgency.
He said Lebanese and Iranians were among those captured. He also criticised
Arab television networks for their coverage of the insurgency. Mr Nakib
said the transmission of hostage-takers' videos depicted Iraqis to the
world as "savages".
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- There have been hints from Mr Allawi's allies that censorship
could be imposed and even threats to close down al-Jazeera's Baghdad bureau
unless its coverage is changed. Later, a spokesman for Mr Sadr said the
cleric wanted to restore his truce.
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- * The Ministry of Defence said last night that a British
soldier died in Iraq. Pte Christopher Gordon Rayment, 22, who was serving
with the 1st Battalion, The Princess of Wales' Royal Regiment, died yesterday
in "a tragic accident" at Amarah.
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- © 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=548354
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