American troops massed outside the holy Shia city of Najaf today, ready for a possible move against rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and his militia. It would be an operation fraught with the risk of enraging Iraqis, who warn soldiers not to defile their sacred shrines.
Armed groups opposed to the occupation freed some foreign hostages - five Ukrainians and three Russians - but made new demands for others. Gunmen paraded four Italians and demanded Rome pull its troops out of Iraq. A French journalist also joined the list of those being held captive.
Such is the danger on Iraq's roads that the US Army said it was suspending some supply convoys until safety improved.
Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, deputy director of operations for the US military in Iraq, said a powerful US force was building up outside Najaf, south of Baghdad, where Sadr is believed to have taken refuge close to the main shrine.
A revolt by Sadr's militiamen this month swept through Shia areas of Baghdad and southern Iraq, opening a new front for US forces already battling minority Sunni Muslims in towns like Falluja, to the west, where most hostages have been taken.
The US military says it will kill or capture the cleric. Sadr said he was willing to die to get Americans out of Iraq.
"Currently we see a significant threat in the vicinity of Najaf by the name of Moqtada al-Sadr and his militia," General Kimmitt told a news conference in Baghdad. "We will get the forces to the place, at the time when it is necessary, to go after him and his militia to end this violence - it is that simple."
Sadr's spokesman in Najaf said if US troops went into the city it would ignite mass violence across Iraq. Sadr said in a television interview he was willing to sacrifice himself and urged his followers to keep up the struggle against the U.S.-led occupation even if he was killed.
But a delegation of clerics from Iraq's majority Shia community who met Sadr said he had hinted he would disband his militia if religious authorities instructed him to do so.