The Imam Ali shrine, the most sacred site in the Shia religion, was damaged on Friday after a day of vicious fighting between United States forces and fighters loyal to the radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in the holy city of Najaf.
In a move that has dismayed Iraq’s Shias, American tanks moved into the centre of the city after coming under fire from al-Sadr’s supporters in an amusement park.
The fighting rapidly spilled over into Najaf’s vast cemetery, a maze of footpaths and tombs known as the Valley of Peace, less than 2km from the holy shrine.
US tanks rumbled into the cemetery and attacked al-Sadr’s fighters, who had opened fire with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades from among the graves.
Explosions and heavy machine-gun fire rocked Najaf for hours. Smoke billowed from blasted buildings. Civilians scurried for cover, leaving most streets deserted as the call for Friday prayers rose from mosques.
The fighting later spread to the headquarters of the US-led coalition in Nassiriya after it was attacked with rocket-propelled grenades. At least 10 international staffers were trapped inside, including Americans, Britons and Italians.
In the neighbouring holy city of Kerbala, fighters attacked an ancient mosque complex occupied by US troops.
The latest fighting marks a dramatic escalation in the US military’s confrontation with al-Sadr, who has been holed up in Najaf since launching an uprising last month against the US occupation.
Sadr aides on Friday showed journalists three small black holes in the gilded dome of the Imam Ali mosque, Najaf’s most sacred place. They blamed American shellfire.
In Baghdad, however, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, the US military spokesperson, said the mosque had probably been damaged by al-Sadr’s supporters.
”Go ask Moqtada,” he said, when questioned about the holes.
Either way, the damage to the shrine and the US military’s decision to penetrate to the heart of Najaf for the first time is likely to appal moderate Shia opinion.
Shia leaders have been trying for days to broker a peaceful solution to the crisis, with signs that most in Najaf are fed up with al-Sadr and his Jaish-al-Mehdi militia.
An anti-al-Sadr demonstration on Friday by supporters of the moderate cleric Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani, the most influential figure in Shia religion, was cancelled because of the fighting.
Al-Sistani’s aides said they were deeply unhappy about the damage to the shrine. They called on both US forces and al-Sadr’s fighters to leave Najaf immediately.
One of al-Sistani’s aides, Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer al-Mohri, told Reuters that things had got so bad he feared for the safety of the cleric, who lives just next door to the shrine.
Although US military officials called Friday’s engagement ”small”, there is little doubt that the offensive will increase opposition to occupation in the crucial weeks before the US hands over limited powers to an Iraqi caretaker government on June 30.
Nearly 300 fighters from al-Sadr’s militia gathered outside his office after fighting ebbed in the late afternoon, chanting slogans in support of their leader.
The hands of many were blackened, apparently a sign that they had taken part in the fighting. Some celebrated from the back of pickup trucks, and carried what they said were parts of US military hardware, including what resembled the door of a Humvee and empty ammunition belts.
”Our morale is sky-high and we are not scared of anyone,” said a militiaman who only gave his first name, Mahdi.
”We will die for Moqtada,” he said.
With US helicopters and a jet fighter circling the city, and all of the roads in and out sealed, doctors said that many of the wounded were unable to get to hospital. Dr Jubayr Awdah Faysal told Al-Jazeera television that the injured had been lying in the streets.
Four dead and 26 wounded, mostly civilians caught in the crossfire, were taken to Najaf’s hospital, officials there said. Many more people were believed to have been killed in the cemetery, but their bodies had yet to be collected, they added.
Despite the US incursion, al-Sadr delivered his regular sermon on Friday in the neighbouring mosque of Kufa, where he denounced US President George Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair as ”the heads of tyranny”.
He said the two leaders had fabricated the beheading of US contractor Nick Berg and had ignored the suffering of Iraqis in coalition prisons.
He also called on his followers in Sadr City, Baghdad’s poor and radical Shia slum, to travel to Najaf and join in the fighting. — Guardian Unlimited Â