- (Agencies) -- US helicopter gunships today fired on militia
loyal to the radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in the southern Iraqi
city of Najaf after a two-month truce between the sides collapsed.
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- The second day of fierce fighting in the holy city came
as clashes between US troops and insurgents broke out in Samarra, north
of Baghdad, where hospital officials said two people had been killed.
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- Elsewhere, Italian soldiers exchanged automatic weapons
fire with assailants who attacked their positions and a police station
in Nasiriya, an Italian military spokesman said.
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- The al-Jazeera television channel reported that four
Iraqis had been killed in the clashes. A military spokesman said the city
was now calm.
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- A source at Beirut's foreign ministry, cited by Reuters,
today said that four Lebanese drivers were taken hostage in Iraq yesterday.
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- More than 60 foreigners - many of them truck drivers
- have been taken hostage since the war was officially declared over last
year, with militants using them to demand the withdrawal of troops and
foreign companies. Although most of the hostages have been freed, some
have been killed.
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- The heavy fighting in Najaf will be a cause of increasing
concern to the commanders of US-led forces in Iraq.
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- Mr Sadr yesterday called for a national uprising against
US forces, although conflicting reports said he had called for the truce
to be restored.
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- Fighting in the area had calmed since reaching its fiercest
levels two months ago, but flared again yesterday after militia attacked
an Iraqi police station, sparking an intervention by US marines.
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- US helicopters today attacked militants hiding in a cemetery
near the Imam Ali shrine in the old city at Najaf's centre, where clouds
of smoke were seen rising.
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- Gunfire and explosions were heard as US soldiers and
Iraqi policemen advanced toward the area, according to witnesses. The streets
were otherwise deserted, and shops were closed.
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- Since yesterday, at least 10 people have been killed
and 40 injured, according to Hussein Hadi, of Najaf general hospital. There
were reports that a US soldier was killed yesterday, and the US military
said it had detained dozens of people, many of whom had been wounded in
the fighting.
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- Ahmed al-Shaibany, an official with Mr Sadr's office
in Najaf, today described the clashes as fierce. "The area near the
[Imam Ali shrine] is being subjected to a war," he said. "Najaf
is being subjected to ... total destruction. We call on the Islamic world
and the civilised world to save the city."
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- Commentators have accused Mr Sadr of using the shrine
- one of the most revered in the Muslim world - to his own advantage, knowing
any damage to it would cause widespread anger.
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- In Samarra, 100km (60 miles) north of Baghdad, guerrillas
attacked a convoy of ten US Humvees at dawn, witnesses said. US helicopters
fired rockets at insurgent positions, and the US convoy pulled out of the
city.
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- Ahmed Jadou'a, an official at Samarra hospital, said
that at least two people had been killed and 16 injured. Two houses were
also destroyed.
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- Iraq's most revered Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali
al-Sistani, was today travelling to London, where he is expected to receive
treatment for a heart condition.
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- The ayatollah's spokesman, Sheik Hamed Khafaf, said he
had "suffered a health crisis related to his heart a few days ago"
and that specialist doctors were treating him. The cleric, who is 73, needs
special treatment, Sheik Khafaf said, refusing to elaborate further.
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- Ayatollah Sistani has great political influence in Iraq
because he is the leading religious figure among the country's Shia Muslim
majority.
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2004 http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1277693,00.html
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