- (Agencies) -- US troops battled the forces of Moqtada
al-Sadr on two fronts yesterday, despite the radical cleric's latest pledge
to surrender.
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- Troops backed by dozens of tanks and Bradley fighting
vehicles overran Baghdad's Sadr City, a power base for Sadr.
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- The military said it killed 50 militiamen, before soldiers
in Humvees called on rebels, who appeared to have stopped fighting and
melted away, to surrender their weapons.
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- The thrust, which began on Wednesday, marks the biggest
push against Sadr's Mehdi Army militia in Baghdad. It came as US and Iraqi
forces continued their game of cat and mouse with the diehard agitator
in the southern city of Najaf.
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- As his Baghdad stronghold was overrun, Sadr promised
again to disarm his militia in Najaf, and leave a holy shrine where he
is holed up.
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- The peace offer was made hours after Iraq's Defence Minister
threatened to crush his rebellion.
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- Intermittent fighting between Shiite militiamen dug in
around the Imam Ali shrine, and US tanks parked just 200m away, again rocked
the centre of Najaf last night.
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- US national security adviser Condoleezza Rice warned
Sadr could not be trusted to keep his word.
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- Sadr "can't have a militia running the streets,"
Dr Rice said. "He can't occupy the holiest shrine in Shiadom. He has
to be dealt with and I'm quite certain he will be."
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- Adding to the tension, a militant group has threatened
to behead a US reporter captured this week unless troops withdraw.
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- Also yesterday, a new US army report on prisoner abuse
at Iraq's Abu Ghraib jail has found misconduct by military interrogators,
but exonerates high-ranking Pentagon officials and senior US military commanders,
a Pentagon official said.
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- The report, which could be made public as early as tomorrow,
found improper conduct among soldiers of the 205th Military Intelligence
Brigade, which was responsible for interrogating detainees.
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- © Herald and Weekly Times
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- http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/co
mmon/story_page/0,5478,10501780%255E663,00.html
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