Coalition Troops, Shiite Militia Clash in Central Iraq

Explosions and gunfire shook central Najaf on Friday as militiamen loyal to anti-American cleric Muqtada Sadr battled U.S.-led coalition troops in this holy city while 50 miles away in Karbala, coalition soldiers killed 18 pro-Sadr fighters.

Using AC-130 gunships, U.S.-led troops in Karbala struck Sadr militia positions near the shrines to Imam Abbas and Imam Hussein, whose golden domes have been wreathed with black smoke from explosions in recent days. Many injuries were reported.

Al Jazeera, the Arab satellite TV channel based in Dubai, said one of its employees was killed by gunfire while standing with a television crew on the roof of a hotel in downtown Karbala. The TV station said in a statement that Rashid Hamid Wali was “martyred” while helping to report on the fighting.

Protests surged across the region Friday as tens of thousands of Shiite Muslims in Lebanon and Bahrain took to the streets. Many wore white shrouds -- indicating that they were prepared to die -- to express their distress that the shrines had become battlegrounds and that Americans were fighting near them.

In contrast to demonstrations in Najaf and Karbala that have blamed Sadr and the Americans equally for violating the sanctity of the cities with their presence, the protests in Lebanon and Bahrain, and a small one in Iran, blamed the United States almost entirely for the desecration of the holy places.

The cities of Najaf and Karbala and their respective shrines are among the holiest places to Shiite Muslims.

The last six weeks of occupation by Sadr’s militia and the attacks on him by U.S. troops have been bitter for residents, who view the presence of gunmen in the shrines and the advance of non-Muslims on them as sacrilege.

A measure of their frustration burst into the open Tuesday when the senior cleric in Najaf, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, called on Shiites not to join Sadr’s uprising against U.S. troops. It was his first public effort to end the rebellion. Sistani appeared to be responding to a call by Sadr for Shiites to join his forces.

Sadr has been hiding in Najaf while his Al Mahdi militia has been turning the city into a battle zone and subjecting Iraqi police, government officials and U.S. troops to constant ambushes and mortar and rocket attacks. On Friday, Al Mahdi fighters in black uniforms with checkered kaffiyeh scarves over their faces scattered through the vast Najaf cemetery where they were believed to be keeping large stores of weapons.

Sadr, wanted in connection with the slaying of a rival Shiite cleric last year, spoke during Friday prayers at the mosque in Kufa, outside Najaf. He urged his followers to persist against the U.S.-led coalition even if he should be killed or arrested. U.S. troops arrested Sheik Mohammed Tabtabai, one of Sadr’s aides said, as he was driving back to Najaf from Kufa after the prayers, another Sadr aide said.

The U.S. military’s strategy for the last three weeks has been to squeeze Sadr’s militia but avoid a direct onslaught on the shrines. The result has been a war of attrition in which scores of young Al Mahdi fighters have died.

Although many of the two cities’ residents want the United States to mount a crushing offensive against Sadr, the U.S. military has been reluctant to take such a step for fear of damaging the shrines and worsening tensions with the Shiite world.

In tense meetings with the U.S. military this week, the newly appointed governor of Najaf called upon the Army to destroy Sadr’s militia, even if it meant turning the Imam Ali shrine to rubble.

Speaking from his fortified mansion, Najaf Gov. Adnan Zurufi said his city’s people had lost patience with the constant clashes between Sadr’s forces and U.S. troops. Too many innocent Najafis have died in the crossfire, he said.

Spokesmen for coalition forces have vowed to bring Sadr to trial over his rival’s assassination, but said they would not fire on the shrine or other religious sites in which Sadr’s forces had taken refuge.

But in a meeting Tuesday with officers of the U.S. Army’s 1st Armored Division, Zurufi said the shrine should no longer be off limits to attack.

“I don’t care about the shrine, I only care about the life of the people,” Zurufi said. “All this is just wood and brick ... but we are losing everything. People tell me you have to [solve] this problem.”

During the meeting, one of many the governor has had with U.S. officials, an Army commander told Zurufi that attacking the shrine would be unacceptable.

“I know the people of Najaf do not care, but what about the reaction of Muslims across the world?” the officer said.

Adnan Pachachi, a member of the U.S.-backed Iraqi Governing Council, joined the chorus asking for a solution to the fighting.

“Already a lot of people have been killed,” said Pachachi, who has met recently with clerics from Karbala to discuss the situation.

“You can’t let things just continue as they are; the people of Najaf and Karbala are fed up and they want the situation resolved. They want the Mahdi army to leave the city,” Pachachi said.

The main stumbling block in reaching a deal is the Al Mahdi militia’s refusal to surrender its weapons.

The United States might be willing to leave Sadr free, but officials are adamant about disarming and disbanding his militia, Pachachi said.

Morin reported from Najaf and Rubin from Baghdad. Raheem Salman of The Times’ Baghdad Bureau contributed from Najaf.