Iraq

Fighting in Najaf imperils truce with Shiite cleric

BAGHDAD - U.S. soldiers came under fire in a Shiite holy city Sunday as an agreement to halt fighting there appeared to be unraveling.

Assailants ambushed a convoy of Britons on a northern Baghdad highway, killing one Iraqi security guard and a bystander, officials and witnesses said.

Today, two British civilians working for a security company died when a roadside bomb blew up their armored car near the coalition headquarters in Baghdad.

Two American soldiers were wounded in the clashes around the holy city, Najaf, the military said. Fighting erupted Sunday night in Najaf's twin city Kufa, and Shiite militiamen accused the Americans of firing near the main mosque, damaging its outer wall.

In a report from Kufa, CNN, which has a reporter embedded with 1st Armored Division troops there, said a "major firefight" broke out late Sunday when soldiers tried to secure a police station. CNN quoted soldiers as saying it was the most intense fighting in the area in the past six weeks.

In Najaf, 90 miles south of Baghdad, Shiite politicians sought to save a 3-day-old agreement with radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to end the standoff with U.S. soldiers in the holy city and restore government control there.

Sadr's fighters took over Najaf and its twin city Kufa in early April after occupation authorities cracked down on his militia, closing his newspaper, arresting a key lieutenant and announcing an arrest warrant against him for the murder of a rival cleric. The crackdown triggered an uprising in the once quiet Shiite areas in which hundreds have been killed.

Under a deal announced Thursday with Shiite leaders, Sadr agreed to remove his fighters from the streets and begin a dialogue with the clerical hierarchy over the future of his militia and the warrant against him. U.S. troops agreed to halt offensive operations around Najaf and Kufa.

However, daily clashes since the agreement was announced have threatened to scuttle the deal. About 150 policemen sent from Baghdad to replace local policemen who deserted returned to Baghdad - ostensibly because of lack of accommodation for them.

The move threatens to delay the start of joint patrols - considered the key to shoring up security in the city as Sadr's militiamen return to their homes.

On Sunday, U.S. troops and Sadr's fighters exchanged gunfire near Najaf's Valley of Peace cemetery, the largest burial ground in the Muslim world. Puffs of white smoke rose above the tombstones as Shiite gunmen fired rocket-propelled grenades at U.S. tanks. One Iraqi was killed and four were injured, hospital officials said.

"The situation is very tough, and it looks like there's no solution," merchant Ammar al-Khafaji complained. "Inside the city, people are afraid."

Sunday's attack in Baghdad's Shoala district occurred near dusk as the convoy of sport utility vehicles headed south toward the city center. Gunmen in an approaching vehicle opened fire, sending three SUVs swerving off the road into barricades.

Crowds of Iraqi youths danced and cheered as rescuers dragged a bloodied body, wearing a flak vest, from the driver's seat of one vehicle. Others looted tires and set two vehicles on fire.

Two witnesses, Khalid Zaalan, 22, and Qays Hussein, 15, said there was a shootout, and armed Western men jumped from the wrecked SUVs, commandeered a passing car at gunpoint and escaped.

In London, the British Foreign Office said four Britons and another Iraqi jumped out of the vehicles, flagged down a passing Iraqi vehicle and escaped. None of the Britons was hurt, but the Iraqi was wounded, the statement said.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman dismissed as rumor some witness reports that Western-looking men were abducted by the attackers.

A family of three was caught in the cross fire, according to Dr. Mazhar Abdullah of the nearby al-Sadr hospital. The husband was killed and his wife, who is six months pregnant, was seriously injured, the doctor said.

A preliminary report from the 1st Cavalry Division, responsible for security in Baghdad, said one Iraqi security guard was killed and another was wounded. The report did not mention any missing personnel or an escape.

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