IRAQ: Despite Iraq's Prime Minister ordering Shi'ite fighters to lay down their weapons and leave the holy city of Najaf yesterday, fighting raged on, with US helicopter gunships pounding guerrilla positions.
Four days of intense fighting in the heart of Najaf, across southern Iraq and in several districts of Baghdad has raised fears of a second Shi'ite Muslim uprising, and piled pressure on Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's 40-day interim government.
In an effort to staunch growing Shi'ite radicalism and a 16-month Sunni-led insurgency, the government has in the past two days introduced an amnesty for low-level guerrillas while reinstating the death penalty for hardline criminals.
Despite that carrot-and-stick approach, fighting shows little sign of abating, and kidnapping - a common currency of insurgents in recent months - continues.
During a brief tour of Najaf yesterday, during which he was protected by scores of heavily-armed US guards, Mr Allawi urged militants to down their weapons or face the consequences.
"There is no negotiation with any militia that bears arms against Iraq and the Iraqi people," he told reporters in the shell-scarred city 160 kilometres south of Baghdad.
"I believe gunmen should leave the holy sites ... quickly, lay down their weapons and return to the rule of order and law."
Hundreds of Shi'ite militants have been killed or wounded in Najaf over the past four days, according to the US military and medical officials, as clashes between US forces and militiamen loyal to rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr intensify.
A Reuters witness yesterday saw two Apache gunships fire missiles at defences manned by Sadr's militia near Najaf's ancient cemetery. The militia, known as the Mehdi Army, dug in, laying mines around the burial ground's crypts and mausoleums.
US soldiers advanced on the city's Imam Ali shrine, the holiest site in Shi'ite Islam, tightening a noose around insurgent positions, while loudspeakers exhorted the militia to fight back, ordering: "Engage in Jihad".
Clashes also erupted in the Baghdad slum district of Sadr City, and in other Baghdad areas, while across southern Iraq tensions remained high in several Shi'ite-dominant cities, including Nassiriya, Amara, Basra and Diwaniya.
At least two mortar bombs hit a street near a Baghdad hotel used by foreigners yesterday, wounding at least three people.
Clashes between US forces and Sadr's militia are the greatest challenge to Mr Allawi's government which is already struggling with continued insurgency in the west and north. It is the heaviest fighting since the last Shi'ite uprising in April and May. The health ministry said at least 51 people had been killed in Najaf, Baghdad and one other city.
Yet few appeared to heed Mr Allawi's call for calm. An aide to Sadr rejected the Prime Minister's demand, and said the Mehdi Army would never leave Najaf.
A senior US military official in Baghdad said marines had put a wide circle around the area to cut off supplies. He said the marines and Iraqi security forces numbered 5,500 men.
Backing up Mr Allawi's threats to get tough with insurgents, the interim government reinstated the death penalty for crimes including murder, kidnapping and drug offences.
Capital punishment, used liberally during Saddam's rule, was suspended by US occupying authorities last year. Since coming to power on June 28th, the new government had repeatedly threatened to reintroduce it.
It was not clear whether the law would be retroactive, casting doubt on whether Saddam and his henchmen could face death if found guilty of crimes. Nor was it certain when the law would come into force, or how executions would be carried out.