& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

US forces call for Najaf evacuation

Pound Sadr militias; 4 insurgents, British soldier killed; Jordanian businessman abducted

AFP, Najaf
US and Iraqi forces battled Shia Muslim militiamen loyal to radical cleric Moqtada Sadr for a sixth straight day in Najaf yesterday with the violence being echoed in part of Baghdad.
In Najaf, US troops drove through the centre of the Shia pilgrimage city, using loudspeakers to call on civilians to evacuate the combat zone immediately and militiamen to leave.
Residents said it was the first time US troops had called for evacuation and feared a massive attack on bastions of Sadr's Mehdi Army in the cemetery and the shrine of Imam Ali, one of the holiest Shia sites.
Artillery and tank shells earlier pounded positions in the vast ceme-
tery and a thick column of black smoke rose near the Imam Ali shrine. Iraqi police in trucks were seen heading to the area while two US helicopters flew overhead.
The military accused insurgents of kidnapping people, including civilians and taking them to the cemetery for "torture, execution and burial".
"We will not allow them to continue to desecrate this sacred site, using it as an insurgent base of operations," said Colonel Anthony Haslam, commander of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit.
Medics said 24 people had been killed and more than 100 wounded in the fighting since Thursday.
Meanwhile, witnesses in Baghdad's Sadr City slum said the US military fired a missile into a residential area, destroying an empty house after a patrol came under attack.
Two explosions rocked Baghdad's centre and smoke was seen rising from the cleric's northeastern stronghold as US military jets roared overhead.
Earlier, clashes raged for three and a half hours when a US patrol came under repeated attack as it drove through the centre of the sprawling slum.
Sporadic gunfire and mortar rounds continued to explode in Sadr City. Shops remained boarded up and the main road closed to traffic as armed militiamen roamed the streets, said an AFP correspondent.
4 INSURGENTS KILLED
Four insurgents were killed early yesterday when they attacked a Ukrainian patrol in central Iraq, a spokesman for the Polish-led multinational force patrolling that part of the country said.
"Terrorists in a car attacked an armoured vehicle in which the Ukrainians were patrolling," Polish Colonel Artur Domanski was quoted as saying by the PAP news agency.
"The soldiers returned fire and the attackers' car was completely destroyed" in the incident at Wasit, he said.
Domanski said there were no Ukrainian casualties.
Separately local police said three Iraqi civilians had been injured when a booby trap exploded as a Ukrainian convoy passed at Numaniyah, some 150km southeast of Baghdad.
Meanwhile, three Iraqi civilians were killed and several others injured when insurgents clashed with Danish soldiers in Al Qurnah north of Basra at the weekend, Danish daily Politiken reported yesterday, quoting hospital sources.
BRITISH SOLDIER KILLED
A British soldier was killed Monday during clashes with insurgents in Iraq's main southern city of Basra, the defence ministry in London said.
"I can confirm that there was a soldier killed this afternoon in Iraq. There have been a number of other casualties as well, during fighting with insurgents in our area of control," a ministry spokesman said, without elaborating.
"The situation has now calmed down," he said.
The spokesman said the victim was the ninth British soldier to die in Iraq this year.
JORDANIAN BUSINESSMAN KIDNAPPED
A Jordanian businessmen has been snatched from his Baghdad home by an unknown group demanding a 250,000-dollar ransom for his release, his son said yesterday.
Sameh, a son of Jamal Sadek al-Salaymeh, 63, said he had no other details on Monday's kidnapping.
But the victim, a father of three, had contacted a friend "to tell him that the kidnappers are negotiating a ransom with him and they had reached agreement on a sum of 250,000 dollars", the son said.
LEBANESE HOSTAGE RELEASED
Lebanese businessman Antoine Antoun, kidnapped July 31 in Iraq, was released yesterday, his father told AFP in Tripoli, raising to two the number of Lebanese
freed in the strife-torn country in 24 hours.
"My son phoned me from Iraq to tell me he was released by his kidnappers who asked for no ransom," said Robert Antoun, adding that the businessman was expected home within a few days.