U.S. forces planning major offensive against Shiite militiamen

NAJAF, Iraq (AP) - U.S. troops prepared a major offensive to root out Shiite militiamen in the holy city of Najaf, training Iraqi security forces Wednesday to join the assault. In a sign of the operation's sensitivity, the military said Iraq's prime minister must approve.

Fighting persisted in the vast cemetery near Najaf's holiest site, the Imam Ali Shrine, where U.S. commanders say Mahdi Army militiamen loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr have been holed up. Gunbattles between militants and coalition forces in two other southern cities killed 18 people.

Farther north, U.S. jet fighters bombed the turbulent city of Fallujah on Wednesday, killing four people, wounding four others and damaging several houses, hospital officials said.

The U.S. military had no immediate comment, but U.S. forces have persistently fought with Sunni Muslim militants holed up in the city. Many of the insurgents believed responsible for the spate of kidnappings, bombings and shooting attacks at coalition forces, Iraqi forces and civilians, are based in the volatile city, 40 miles west of Baghdad.

Elsewhere, a roadside bomb exploded near a market north of Baghdad on Wednesday, killing at least six Iraqis and wounding nine others, a hospital official said. The explosion shook the market in Khan Bani Saad, about six miles south of Baqouba.

In Najaf, the Marines said Wednesday they are training Iraqi security forces in preparation for a major assault to root out the fighters.

Speaking of the timing for the planned major assault, U.S. Marine Maj. David Holahan said interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi "makes the final decision."

It was not known whether commanders were planning a raid into the Imam Ali Shrine, an action that could enrage Iraq's Shiite majority and Shiites worldwide. Najaf's governor has given U.S. troops permission to enter the shrine compound.

A raid carried out by Iraqi security forces may be seen as less provocative to Shiite sensibilities. But many have criticized the Iraqi troops as insufficiently trained or armed.

Militiamen were once again firing on U.S. troops from a building just 400 yards from the Imam Ali Shrine. On Tuesday, U.S. helicopter gunships pummeled the multistory hotel with rockets, missiles and 30 mm cannons, killing 20 people, the military said, in one of the closest strikes yet to the shrine.

"We keep pushing south and they just keep coming," said Capt. Patrick McFall, from the 1st Cavalry Division.

Ibrahim al-Jaafari, Iraq's interim vice president, called on the U.S. troops to withdraw from Najaf.

"Only Iraqi forces should stay in Najaf, these forces should be responsible for security and should save Najaf from this phenomenon of killing," al-Jaafari told Arab TV network Al-Jazeera from London on Wednesday.

Coalition forces said they were operating in the city at the request of the government.

The top health official in Najaf, Falah al-Mahani, said the deteriorating security situation was causing "a real catastrophe" for the health services.

"Ambulances are prevented from reaching the injured people by the clashing parties. Our staff are not able to reach their hospitals. We are paralyzed," he said, adding that the fighting injured 18 members of his staff.

In a statement Wednesday, al-Sadr said: "I hope that you keep fighting even if you see me detained or martyred. ... I thank the dear fighters all over Iraq for what they have done to set back injustice."

To control movement in Najaf, Iraqi police and national guards blocked roads that connect the city's northern and southern parts.

The U.S. military has estimated that hundreds of insurgents have been killed in Najaf since fighting began last Thursday, but the militants dispute that. Five U.S. troops have been killed, along with about 20 Iraqi officers.

Al-Mahani said 25 civilians had been killed and 146 injured by Tuesday night.

The fighting has plagued other Shiite communities across Iraq.

In Kut, 100 miles southeast of Baghdad, Iraqi police fought off attacks from the Mahdi Army at the town's central police station and other government offices. The fighting killed four people and wounded 20 others said Dr. Falah al-Bermany, a local health official.

"We gave orders to our forces to shoot anyone who gets near government buildings," said Mohammed Ridha, Kut's governor.

Overnight clashes between insurgents and British forces in the southern city of Amarah killed 14 people and injured 42, according to the Health Ministry. Local officials said many of the killed and injured were militants.

In the fighting, British forces attacked positions that militants were using to attack patrols and bases with rocket-propelled grenades and mortars, Maj. Ian Clooney, a British spokesman, said. The British suffered two minor casualties.

During the day Wednesday, British tanks were patrolling the major roads in Amarah, while Mahdi Army militants walked through the alleys, witnesses said.

Also Wednesday, gunmen killed the head of a regional office of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the country's largest Shiite group.

Ali al-Khalisi, the head of SCIRI's Diyala province was killed in Mahmoudiya, about 25 miles south of Baghdad, when gunmen drove up to his car and fired at him, said Haitham al-Husseini, a SCIRI spokesman.

Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's al-Tawhid and Jihad group claimed responsibility for the killing in a statement posted on an Islamic web site.