- NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S.
forces are pounding Shi'ite militia from the air and ground in the holy
Iraqi city of Najaf, and using loudspeakers to urge the entrenched fighters
to surrender.
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- U.S. helicopter gunships pounded positions near the city's
ancient Shi'ite Muslim cemetery, a haven for militiamen from firebrand
cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army who have been battling American marines
for six straight days.
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- But in a relief for the cash-strapped government, Iraq
is expected to resume full oil exports on Wednesday after it shut one of
two pipelines feeding the country's southern terminal as a security precaution,
a South Oil Company official said.
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- A larger export pipeline was shut on Monday after it
was attacked, but the damage was minor and the pipeline should be able
to operate normally on Wednesday along with the smaller pipeline, the official
told Reuters.
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- Clashes erupted in a poor Shi'ite Baghdad suburb called
Sadr City as fighters ignored a curfew order from Iraq's interim government.
Insurgents also fired mortars around midday at the Interior Ministry and
Water Resources Ministry, witnesses said.
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- It was unclear if there were any casualties from the
mortar attacks.
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- The radical Shi'ite uprising across central and southern
Iraq, the second in four months, has virtually shut down several cities
and given Prime Minister Iyad Allawi his sternest test since taking over
from U.S.-led occupiers on June 28.
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- Colonel Anthony Haslam, commanding officer of the 11th
Marine Expeditionary Unit in Najaf, warned the militia to stop using the
city's holy sites including the area around the Imam Ali Shrine and the
cemetery as a launch pad for attacks.
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- "We will not allow them to continue to desecrate
this sacred site, using it as an insurgent base of operations. There will
be no sanctuary for thugs and criminals in Najaf," Haslam said.
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- The Health Ministry said 10 people were killed and 104
wounded in fighting over the past 24 hours in Baghdad, including Sadr City.
An official said he had no toll from Najaf.
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- DEFIANT SADR
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- Allawi has ordered Sadr's men to leave Najaf but the
young firebrand cleric who appeals to poor Shi'ite youth with his anti-American
rhetoric responded with defiance on Monday, saying he would keep resisting
and never leave his hometown.
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- U.S. marines say they have killed 360 of Sadr's loyalists
since last Thursday in Najaf, home to the holiest Shi'ite Muslim shrine,
some 160 km (100 miles) south of Baghdad.
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- Sadr's spokesmen say far fewer have died.
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- The fighting has buried a two-month ceasefire with U.S.
forces and appears to have stalled efforts by Allawi to draw Sadr into
the country's political transition.
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- Citing the deterioration of security, the Polish-led
multinational division that had been responsible for Najaf has handed command
of the area to American forces.
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- The latest Najaf clashes erupted just after 8 a.m. (5
a.m. British time) following a night of intermittent gunfire. Marines later
broadcast messages through loudspeakers, urging militiamen to surrender.
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- Battles in other cities have killed dozens in recent
days.
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- A Japanese defence ministry spokesman said in Tokyo four
mortar bombs, said by security sources to have hit the Japanese base in
the southern Iraqi town of Samawa, landed "several hundred metres
(yards)" from the base on Tuesday.
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- There were no casualties, the security sources said.
It was not immediately clear if the attacks were linked to the revolt by
Sadr's Mehdi Army.
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- In the southern city of Basra, a British military spokeswoman
said the streets were calm after clashes on Monday that killed one British
soldier and wounded four others.
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- A roadside bomb aimed at a U.S. military convoy exploded
near hotels used by foreigners in Baghdad early on Tuesday, wounding two
soldiers, a military spokesman said.
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- During the night, insurgents fired a dozen mortars or
rockets in central Baghdad, mostly aimed at the Green Zone compound housing
the Iraqi government and the U.S. embassy. Those blasts caused no casualties,
the U.S. military said.
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- Insurgents have stepped up mortar and rocket attacks
in Baghdad since the Shi'ite uprising erupted, while also appearing to
take advantage of the lower U.S. military profile since the handover of
sovereignty.
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- Another burden for Allawi has been a spate of kidnappings
aimed at pressuring foreign forces and firms to leave Iraq.
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- About 20 foreigners remain in the hands of kidnappers,
although on Tuesday the family of a Lebanese businessman held hostage said
he had been released and was in good health.
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- On Monday, a Syrian, two Jordanians and two Lebanese
were released, their families said.
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