A radical Shiite Muslim cleric urged his militia yesterday to keep fighting US forces in Iraq even if he is killed, raising the stakes in a bloody confrontation that shows no sign of ending.
The challenge from Moqtada al-Sadr came as sporadic clashes echoed from the heart of the southern city of Najaf, where hundreds have been killed or wounded in the past week around some of Iraq's holiest Shiite Muslim sites.
PHOTO: REUTERS
"Keep fighting even if you see me a prisoner or a martyr. God willing you will be victorious," Sadr said in a statement from Najaf, where he is holed up with his fighters.
In fresh violence elsewhere, at least six Iraqis were killed and 10 wounded when a bomb exploded in a market just north of Baghdad, hospital sources said.
The fighting between US forces and Sadr's Mehdi Army in Najaf, part of a broader Shiite uprising in at least seven southern and central cities, is the toughest challenge yet for the six-week-old administration of Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.
The crisis also appears to have created cracks in Allawi's administration after deputy president Ibrahim Jaafari urged US troops to leave Najaf to end the fighting.
US forces have been pounding Sadr's militiamen in Najaf with warplanes and helicopters for days. The Iraqi fighters have taken sanctuary in the vast cemetery and inside the nearby Imam Ali Shrine.
Marines have cordoned off the area but have not made a full assault, a move that would enrage Iraq's Shiites. They have also said they were not hunting Sadr.
In the past 24 hours, at least 30 Iraqis have been killed and 219 wounded in five cities including Baghdad, the Health Ministry said on yetserday. The figure did not include Najaf.
US forces say they have killed 360 Sadr loyalists so far in Najaf, home to 600,000 people some 160km south of Baghdad.
Fighting erupted again in a Baghdad slum district called Sadr City where armed fighters have roamed at will. Two US tanks thrust into the suburb, pursued by militiamen who fired at least one rocket propelled grenade at the vehicles.
In the southern town of Amara, British troops backed by planes launched an offensive against Shiite fighters overnight.
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