US forces enter Najaf, destroy Sadr's offices: 41 Mehdi militiamen die in fighting
NAJAF, May 6: US forces battled Shia militia loyal to Moqtada al-Sadr near the holy city of Najaf on Thursday, seizing the governor's mansion and killing 41 militia fighters in a lightning operation.
Witnesses said seven or eight US tanks surrounded the governor's house, about five km from the sensitive religious sites in the city centre, and troops took occasional fire from militiamen holed up in the area using AK-47s and rocket propelled grenades.
US tanks also moved into nearby Kerbala, another holy city, about 100 km southwest of Baghdad. The tanks took up positions close to the main shrines after destroying Sadr offices with machinegun fire.
Najaf locals said some fleeing militiamen had taken refuge in their homes, raising fears US forces could be drawn into urban fighting if they decided to flush out militia in the area.
Doctors at a local hospital said they had received three dead from the area - two women and a nine-year-old child - and were also treating at least nine wounded, some of them women.
The troops retook the governor's office as Paul Bremer, the US-appointed administrator of Iraq, named a new governor for the city. A senior coalition military official said the governor's office had been taken largely without a fight.
But east of the city, across the Euphrates River, US forces drew out fighters of Sadr's Mehdi Army and killed 41 of them, the official said. He gave no details about any US casualties.
Lt-Col Pat White, head of the 2nd Battalion, 37th Armoured Brigade around the governor's mansion, said his force was still taking fire from areas around the building.
As he was being interviewed, his voice was drowned out by gunfire, which he identified as being from a heavy machine gun on one of the tanks guarding the compound.
"If you gonna go down in there, you'd better be prepared for it because there are a lot of them," he said, adding that his battalion had killed about 20 Mehdi Army fighters.
KERBALA: In Kerbala, witnesses said about eight heavy armoured vehicles and six lighter vehicles were positioned in the city centre, about 500 metres from the shrines of Imam Hussein (AS) and Hazrat Abbas (AS).
Witnesses earlier said US troops were engaging Mehdi Army fighters firing RPGs, AK-47s and mortar rounds near the city's centre. Italian troops also clashed with Sadr's militiamen, engaging in a short gunbattle south of Nassiriya, Italian officials said.
US-led forces in Iraq are trying to crush Sadr's militia before a scheduled June 30 hand over of sovereignty to Iraqis. They have said they will refrain from entering shrines in Najaf and Kerbala, which would incite widespread fury.
Mainstream Iraqi Shia leaders urged Sadr this week to disarm and allow a political end to his nearly month-long standoff with occupying troops in and around Najaf.
Earlier, as the operation was launched, witnesses reported seeing plumes of smoke rising from a cemetery on the fringes of the city as US helicopters swooped low over the area.
Bremer, speaking to reporters as he appointed the new governor for Najaf, denounced Sadr, saying he had used the holy sites of the region, which are deeply sacred.
"These armed bands have fired mortars from the mosque of Kufa, they have stored arms and munitions in the mosques of Iraq's holy cities," Bremer said as he installed Adnan Zurfi as Najaf's governor.
The Shia leaders called on Sadr to pull out of mosques in the area and Bremer suggested the US-led occupation would help them reassert control over Najaf and other cities. Bremer called on Sadr to surrender. -Agencies
