IRAQ: US helicopter gunships pounded Shia militias in the holy Iraqi city of Najaf yesterday as tanks rumbled to within 800 metres of a holy shrine at the centre of a near three-week insurgency.
With talks aimed at ending the siege of the Imam Ali mosque stalled, US forces appeared to have tightened their noose around the old city, a stronghold of rebels loyal to radical Shia Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
Near Najaf, clashes on Saturday between US troops and militias killed 40 people in the town of Kufa, a Shia bastion from where al-Sadr has led Friday prayers.
Interior Ministry officials said the dead were militias and civilians. In the volatile Anbar province, three US marines were killed in action on Saturday, the US military said in a statement.
Since the start of the war last year to oust Saddam Hussein, more than 700 American troops have been killed in action.
Rounds of heavy-calibre fire from armoured vehicles rattled across the labyrinth of narrow streets which lead to the gold-domed mosque in Najaf, where Mahdi militias remain dug in in defiance of a government demand to disband and leave. A witness said US tanks advanced to their closest positions to the shrine since the siege began and drew mortar fire from Mahdi militias.
There were no immediate reports of casualties from the latest fighting, which erupted after negotiators failed to agree on the terms of a handover of the mosque by al-Sadr's forces to Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most respected Shia cleric.
Earlier yesterday, a US military gunship unleashed rapid cannon and howitzer fire on the rebels.
Al-Sadr has insisted Ayatollah Sistani send a delegation to take an inventory of precious items in the mosque, thought to include jewellery, relics and carpets, to head off any claim that al-Sadr's men had stolen anything. Ayatollah Sistani, in London recovering from surgery, has said he cannot form the committee in the current circumstances.
The uprising, in which hundreds of people have died, has helped to drive world oil prices to record highs and is a challenge to the authority of the Prime Minister, Mr Iyad Allawi, who took over from US-led occupiers only two months ago. Mr Allawi had threatened to storm the mosque, but any bloody takeover could infuriate Iraq's majority Shia population and further destabilise the country ahead of elections due in January.
Mr Qasim Daoud, a minister of state, said in Baghdad that time was running out. "When we say there are hours to military action, we mean it. We are counting the hours," he said. "Our forces are ready, but our hands are also open to any political answer."
North of Baghdad, a car exploded near a convoy carrying Iraqi officials near Baquba, killing two people and wounding eight. The suicide car-bomber appeared to have been targeting the town's deputy mayor, who was slightly wounded. In Mosul, an Indonesian worker and two Iraqis were killed during a road ambush in which a Filipino was also wounded.
An Islamic militant group has posted pictures on its website of 12 Nepalis it says it is holding hostage because of their co-operation with US forces. Al-Jazeera television has said an American journalist held hostage by one group has been freed.