NAJAF, Iraq – Explosions and gunfire shook Najaf’s Old City on Sunday in a fierce battle between U.S. forces and Shiite militants, as negotiations dragged on for the hand-over of the shrine that the fighters have used for their stronghold.
Late Sunday, U.S. warplanes and helicopters attacked positions in the Old City for the second night with bombs and gunfire, witnesses said. Militant leaders said the Imam Ali Shrine compound’s outer walls were damaged in the attacks.
The U.S. military, which has been careful to avoid damaging the compound, said it fired on sites south of the shrine, where militants were shooting from, but did not hit the compound wall.
Also, an American journalist held hostage for more than a week and threatened with death if U.S. forces did not leave Najaf was released by his captors.
In the afternoon a fierce battle between the U.S. military and al-Sadr’s militants broke out when insurgents launched a mortar barrage at U.S. troops, witnesses said. Calm returned to the city after about half an hour.
U.S. forces sealed off the Old City, the center of the more than two weeks of fighting, restoring a cordon that had been loosened in recent days.
Several mortar attacks targeted police offices in the city, but no one was injured, officials said.
But Iraqi government officials counseled patience, saying they intended to resolve the crisis without raiding the shrine, one of Shia Islam’s holiest sites.
“The government will leave no stone unturned to reach a peaceful settlement,” Iraqi National Security adviser Mouaffaq al-Rubaie said. “It has no intention or interest in killing more people or having even the most trivial damage to the shrine. We have a vested interest in a peaceful settlement.”
Late Sunday, U.S. journalist Micah Garen, who was kidnapped Aug. 13 in the southern city of Nasiriyah, was released along with his Iraqi translator at al-Sadr’s offices there after the cleric’s aides appealed for his freedom.
In a brief interview with the pan-Arab television station Al-Jazeera after his release, Garen thanked al-Sadr’s representatives for their work, which included an appeal to the kidnappers during Friday prayers.
Sheik Aws al-Khafaji, an al-Sadr aide, said the kidnappers mistakenly had thought Garen was working for the U.S. intelligence services.
Associated Press
An Iraqi militant loyal to Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr carries a rocket-propelled grenade launcher during clashes with U.S. forces and Iraqi guards in Najaf, Iraq, on Sunday.
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