PAGE 12 Najaf Fighting Continues American forces renewed attacks against Iraqi insurgents loyal to the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr on Sunday, but his Mahdi Army appeared to still be in control of the sacred Iman Ali shrine in Najaf.
[Page A1] NAJAF MAYHEM -- Members of the militia loyal to the radical Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr seized a police station in the southern holy city of Najaf, freed the prisoners and allowed looters to plunder the building in a serious infraction of a week-old truce that left at least five people dead.
The soldiers reportedly killed at least 25 insurgents in Karbala, 12 in Najaf and at least 41 in two separate battles around Kufa.
Bomb Kills 3 in Najaf BAGHDAD (AP) — A car bomb exploded near a bus for Shiite pilgrims in Najaf, Iraq, on Saturday, killing at least three people and wounding dozens, officials said.
He took credit for car bombs that killed 60 in Najaf and Karbala in December 2004; rocket attacks on Israel and US navy vessels in Jordan the following August, and a triple attack on three Amman hotels which killed another 60 on November 9 2005.
He told members of the committee during a meeting on Sept. 11 in Najaf that he had intervened to guarantee that Iraq's constitution would protect the rights of all ethnic and religious groups and prevent radicals on either side of the Sunni-Shiite divide from hijacking the process.
These leaders include Massoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani, the Kurdish chieftains of northern Iraq; Ahmad Chalabi and Iyad Alawi, the secular Shiite leaders who have strong backing in Washington; and Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the brother of Ayatollah Muhammad Bakr al-Hakim, who died in a car bomb attack on Aug. 29 in Najaf.
A1 Fighting in Najaf Kills 4 Fighting erupted between followers of the rebellious Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr and his opponents in the holy city of Najaf, killing at least four people and wounding at least 20, officials said.
Incomplete figures for American casualties, given in a briefing at a Marine base 30 miles east of Najaf at 1 p.m. local time on Friday, were that two marines had been killed and 12 wounded.
Mr Sahaf said that US-British bombing killed 26 civilians in Najaf and another seven in Baghdad.
The battle for Najaf, 85 miles south of Baghdad, is not yet over, even as American forces have advanced northward.
