US troops have sealed off roads around the office and house of an Iraqi Shi'ite Muslim cleric whose followers the US military has blamed for starting a shootout which killed three American soldiers.
Soldiers surrounded the buildings in Iraq's holy Shi'itecity of Kerbala used by local cleric Sayyid Mahmoud al-Hassaniwith armoured vehicles and helicopters circled overhead.
Three US military police and two Iraqi police were killedon Thursday night in fighting in the city. The US militarysaid the shootout was started by supporters of Hassani, himselfa sympathiser of radical Shi'ite leader Moqtada al-Sadr whoopposes the US-led occupation of Iraq.
US officers would not comment on whether they were hopingto arrest Hassani. His supporters said he had left his homeafter Thursday's shooting in which local people said eight ofhis followers had been killed.
Shi'ites are in the majority in Iraq and were repressed bySaddam Hussein, a Sunni. Moderate Shi'ite leaders have advocatedcautious cooperation with Iraq's occupying forces in the hope ofsecuring power in a future government.
Most attacks on US forces have occurred in the so-called"Sunni Triangle" north and west of Baghdad, but Thursday'sattack in the Shi'ite city 90 kms (55 miles) south of thecapital showed increasing anti-American sentiment among theyoung followers of radical Shi'ite clerics.
"(Hassani) is very popular in Kerbala," said teenager RaedKerba'i, among a crowd who had gathered around the U.S.roadblocks. "The Americans just want to take over and we won'tlet them."
US forces backed by helicopters imposed a curfew in theSunni town of Khaldiya west of Baghdad early on Saturday,stopping people from walking on the streets and shopkeepers fromopening their stores, witnesses said.
Soldiers sealed off the town and prevented journalists fromentering. Witnesses said residents hadbecome angry after male US soldiers had searched a woman, andthe curfew appeared aimed at preventing disturbances.