Fighting erupted in the centre of Najaf on Friday as American tanks and soldiers battled militiamen loyal to the rebel Shi’ite cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr in a centuries-old cemetery well within range of the revered Shrine of Imam Ali.Amid plumes of smoke and explosions that echoed around the old city’s narrow streets, the shrine itself was reportedly hit by gunfire, pitting its golden dome with four small holes. The damage, however slight, marked a moment that the American military has been straining to avoid in its five-week standoff with Al-Sadr: any violation of the holy sites of Najaf and Karbala, held sacred to Shi’ites in Iraq and around the Muslim world, that could inflame Shi’ites into a broader uprising against American forces here.But many moderate Shi’ites have called for Al-Sadr and his militia to leave Najaf, and there were no signs of wider unrest on Friday. Despite the damage, the US military said it was taking extraordinary pains to convince Shi’ites that it was doing everything to keep the violence away from the shrines. ‘‘It’s important to understand that we have not attacked the Shrine of Imam Ali,’’ Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the chief spokesman for the American military, told reporters here on Friday.‘‘We continue to respect the red lines that have been established by the clerics.’’As Al-Sadr’s supporters blamed Americans for the damage, Kimmitt had ready a rebuttal in the form of a large satellite map showing where the fighting took place. American forces, he said, had only fired northward and away from the shrine. ‘‘Go ask Moqtada who put that hole in the shrine,’’ Kimmitt said.‘‘I suspect he will tell you that it was coalition forces. But I suspect if you look very carefully, the coalition does not yet have ammunition that can shoot to the north and then turn around and head south.’’ Still, the fighting on Friday appeared to move the confrontation with Al-Sadr to a more sensitive stage, not only in Najaf but in Karbala, to the north. On Friday in Karbala, militiamen taking cover near two other holy Shi’ite shrines bombarded American soldiers with mortar shells and rocket-propelled grenades, as the Americans tried to keep control of a mosque they occupied this week. AFP added later that the coalition warned residents of Karbala to leave the city after three civilians were killed and seven others were wounded. The fighting has ratcheted up the pressure not only on the American troops and Al-Sadr, but also on more moderate Shi’ite leaders. Shi’ites, who compose about 60 per cent of Iraq’s 25 million people, stand to gain most from any democratic government here. Because of that, Al-Sadr represents a divisive danger to that goal.At the same time, other leaders have been reluctant to attack Al-Sadr, for fear of being seen as siding with the ever-more-unpopular US occupation here. —(NYT)
