Sadr ready to die to drive US out of Iraq

Sadr urged non-US soldiers to ‘‘stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Iraqi people’’. Sadr said he was in talks with Iraqi mediators to end the uprising. But he rejected US demands that he disband his militia and said foreign troops should stay out of Najaf: ‘‘My only demand is the liberation of…Najaf and the withdrawal of occupation forces from it,’’ he said.

The top US commander in Iraq Lt Gen Ricardoz Sanchez has ordered his troops to ‘‘capture or kill’’ Al-Sadr ‘‘if they can find him’’. John Abizaid, who oversees all troops in West Asia, said yesterday that he had asked for two more combat brigades. The troops would be used to hold off Shiite insurgents allied with Al-Sadr.

Meanwhile, an Islamist group holding four Italians demanded Italy pull its troops out of Iraq, after other kidnappers freed five Ukrainians and three Russians on Tuesday. TV pictures showed four men described as Italian hostages seated on the ground holding their passports. Heavily armed men stood around them. Italy’s Foreign Ministry confirmed four Italians were missing and said they worked for a security company.

The Ukrainians and Russians were freed a day after they were seized in Iraq, where a US military crackdown has led to the abduction of over 40 foreigners and a flareup of violence.

But Russia’s biggest contractor in Iraq said it was now evacuating all its 370 staff and Moscow said it was ready to help evacuate all the roughly 500 Russians in Iraq. France urged its citizens to leave Iraq and postpone plans to travel there.

US forces kept up pressure on Moqtada Al-Sadr by detaining one of his aides. US forces released Hazem Al-Araji after five hours saying he had no direct part in recent violence by Sadr’s militia.

Fresh clashes around Falluja also threatened a shaky truce in the city. Residents said tanks were firing in two districts of the battered city.

A US helicopter was shot down near the town, witnesses said. The US military said three of the crew were wounded.

Insurgents, their faces concealed by red-and-white keffiyeh scarves, emerged from muddy side streets and date palm groves with rocket-propelled grenades slung over their shoulders.

‘‘These cowards, the Americans, they are killing families. They did not come here to liberate us…they came to kill women and children,’’ said one guerrilla. ‘‘We will teach them a lesson, we will turn this city into a graveyard for them.’’