16 May 2004	Sunday	25 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

KARBALA, May 15: The occupying forces on Saturday urged residents to leave Iraq's holy city of Karabala after three civilians were killed and seven wounded in fighting between militiamen and Iraqi troops.

Warplanes flew low overhead and US soldiers drove through town telling people to leave over loudspeakers following clashes between US-trained Iraqi paramilitaries and loyalists of Shia leader Moqtada Sadr.

A patrol of the Iraqi Civil Defence Corps (ICDC) came under attack 50 metres from the mausoleums of Hazrat Imam Hussein and Imam Abbas, said witness Hassan Ghanem.

He said he saw a fighter from Sadr's Mehdi Army militia beat an ICDC officer.

Doctor Ali Ardawi said three dead and seven wounded had been admitted to Karbala's hospital. "All the victims were civilians," he said.

A Qatari cameraman working for the Al Jazeera television channel said he was lightly wounded after a US tank opened fire near the Hazrat Imam Hussein shrine.

He was being treated at the hotel where he was staying because it was impossible for ambulances to get near the area.

"I was filming US tanks firing at the Mehdi militia near the holy shrines when a strong explosion suddenly knocked me to the ground," he said.

The Polish-led multinational division based in the region said one soldier was wounded after his patrol came under attack near the Al Muhayem mosque in Karbala.

SISTANI'S APPEAL: A representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali al Sistani called on local people to find a "peaceful solution" to the violence.

"I call on residents to intervene with both parties in the conflict to find a peaceful solution," Sheikh Abdel Mehdi Karabalai said.

A senior official said the US military was urging local leaders to secure a peaceful outcome, but insisted that the militia disband and Sadr face justice for his alleged role in the murder of a rival last year.

"The use of arms may create 10 new problems that we're trying to avoid," the deputy director of US operations, Brig Gen Mark Kimmitt, said at a Baghdad news conference.

HOSTAGE: Mehdi Army commander Sheikh Hamza Tai said a police officer taken hostage during an attack on Friday had been released, but warned that any "collaborators" caught in the future would be killed.

"This is the last policeman that we will free. Any new policemen we capture will be executed for collaborating with the occupiers," Sheikh Tai told reporters.

Sadr's militiamen raided a police station on Friday and escaped with a cache of assault rifles, police said earlier. -AFP