US inflicts heavy losses on Iraqi Shi'ite militia

6.00am UPDATE

NAJAF - US forces killed dozens of Iraqi fighters near Najaf overnight, hours after Washington issued an ultimatum to a radical Shi'ite cleric to clear his militia from mosques in the holy city.

Officials said on Tuesday airborne gunships killed about 57 guerrillas in a single assault against a lone anti-aircraft gun spotted during clashes on the ground.

It was the bloodiest encounter since firebrand preacher Moqtada al-Sadr and his Mehdi Army militia launched a brief revolt against the US-led occupation three weeks ago. It may mark a new phase in American efforts to dislodge him from Najaf, where he has taken refuge among Islam's holiest Shi'ite shrines.

In all, US troops killed about 64 fighters in clashes on Monday near Kufa, 10km from Najaf, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt told a news conference in Baghdad.

Locals said aircraft had destroyed a militia checkpoint. Kimmitt said guerrillas fired rocket-propelled grenades at a tank. Staff at two hospitals counted at least 23 dead and 34 wounded. Some of the casualties did not appear to be guerrillas.

At the funerals of five people killed, mourners chanted "Long live Sadr!" and slogans against the United States and its allies on Iraq's interim Governing Council.

Adding to the US burden, Spanish troops quit Najaf and Iraq in a withdrawal ordered by the new government in Madrid, where opposition to the occupation runs high. Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriquez Zapatero said only support personnel were left in Iraq and the last of them would be out by May 27.

US troops, who make up the vast bulk of the 150,000-strong force in Iraq, have had to take the Spaniards' place in Najaf.

President Georgi Parvanov demanded Bulgaria's 450 troops be moved to safety away from the nearby holy city of Kerbala after his convoy was fired on when he visited them on Sunday.

In a second flashpoint, the Sunni Muslim town of Falluja, local police took to the streets in force on Tuesday as a deadline expired for guerrillas to hand in heavy weapons. After bloody skirmishing on Monday, clashes were relatively light.

Making clear Washington was in no hurry to launch an all-out assault on a town where hundreds have been killed during a three-week siege, Kimmitt said he was not sure any weapons were turned over on Tuesday but added negotiations were "going well" and there were still plans for US troops to enter the town.

The Marines encircling Falluja had said they might mount patrols with Iraqi police as early as Tuesday. Kimmitt said that might now take another day or two. It remained unclear how US forces expect to enter Falluja without triggering new fighting.

Washington is struggling to douse these twin challenges to the new order in Baghdad without inflaming anger at civilian casualties before the US authority hands formal sovereignty back to an appointed Iraqi government on June 30.

Najaf, south of the capital, and Falluja, west, have provided acid tests among Iraq's two main Muslim communities.

The long oppressed Shi'ite majority broadly welcomed the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, a Sunni, a year ago. Saddam will spend his 67th birthday in US captivity on Wednesday after receiving a Red Cross visit at his secret jail on Tuesday.

But though few miss Saddam, impatience with disruption to daily life has angered many Iraqis, Shi'ite as well as Sunni.

Secretary of State Colin Powell told Reuters US forces would have to keep wide powers after the handover, "which in some ways infringes on what some would call full sovereignty".

In Falluja, US commanders say they face up to 2,000 fighters -- some diehard Saddam loyalists, others trying to reassert Sunni dominance of Iraq, and maybe about 200 foreign Islamic radicals, some possibly linked to al Qaeda.

Civilian casualties and the sight of refugees fleeing the city of 300,000 have dismayed many Iraqis. The US offensive began in response to the murder of four American contractors.

Open warfare in Najaf would carry even greater risks for US efforts to win support among the Shi'ite majority.

US administrator Paul Bremer calls the situation there "explosive" and issued an ultimatum on Monday to Sadr to pull his men and weapons out of mosques and schools immediately.

Sadr, a 30-year-old firebrand who draws authority from his late father, an ayatollah murdered by Saddam's forces, is wanted for the killing last year of another Shi'ite cleric. He has vowed to mount suicide attacks if the Americans try to get him.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq