IRAQ: US forces pounded Shia militia from the air and ground in the holy Iraqi city of Najaf yesterday and used loudspeakers to urge the entrenched fighters to lay down their weapons.
US helicopter gunships struck positions near the city's ancient Shia Muslim cemetery, a haven for militiamen from the Mahdi army of Moqtada al-Sadr who have been battling American marines for six successive days.
Marines have thrown a tight cordon around the cemetery and the Imam Ali shrine but have yet to make a full assault on fighters holed up in the sites, a move that would enrage Iraq's majority Shia community and probably set off further violence.
Iraq's interim government is also struggling with a spate of kidnappings aimed at pressuring foreign forces and firms to leave Iraq.
An Islamist website carried a videotape yesterday purporting to show the beheading in Iraq of a man identified as an "Egyptian spy" working with US forces.
But in a relief for the cash-strapped government, Iraq resumed full oil production in its southern oilfields after quickly repairing a pipeline valve blown up on Monday by saboteurs, an Iraqi oil official said.
The official said both export lines from the fields in the Basra region were now exporting. The closure of one of the pipelines on Monday sent world oil prices to fresh record highs.
Clashes broke out in the Baghdad suburb called Sadr City as fighters ignored a curfew order from the administration of the Prime Minister, Mr Iyad Allawi.
The radical Shia uprising in several cities across central and southern Iraq, the second in four months, has killed and wounded hundreds and given Mr Allawi his sternest test since taking over from US-led occupiers on June 28th.
Col Anthony Haslam, commanding officer of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit in Najaf, warned the militia to stop using areas around the Imam Ali shrine, one of Shi'ite Islam's holiest sites, and the cemetery as a launch pad for attacks.
"We will not allow them to continue to desecrate this sacred site, using it as an insurgent base of operations.
"There will be no sanctuary for thugs and criminals in Najaf," Col Haslam said.
The Health Ministry said 10 people had been killed and 104 wounded in fighting over the past 24 hours in Baghdad, including Sadr City.
An official said he had no figures from Najaf.