& 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

Violence erupts in Najaf again

GI, Dutch soldier, Ukrainian officer and 8 Iraqis killed in attacks

AFP, Najaf
Gunfire boomed across the Iraqi city of Najaf yesterday, a day after the interim government said its offensive against Shiite Muslim militiamen would continue in the wake of failed peace talks.
An AFP correspondent heard tank fire and saw smoke rising from the
direction of the cemetery, north of the holy shrine of Imam Ali, which has been a militia stronghold since a spring uprising against foreign troops.
A ceseafire Friday suspended days of fierce fighting between rebel leader Moqtada Sadr's Mehdi Army and a US and Iraqi government forces to allow for negotiations, which broke down the next
day.
Mortar and tank fire, punctuated with machine-gun fire continued into the early afternoon in the Old City.
The area has been sealed off by US forces, who were only allowing people to leave. US soldiers fired warning shots into the air to hurry FROM PAGE 12
vehicles into leaving.
Meanwhile, a US soldier was killed in northern Baghdad yesterday, the military said in a statement.
The soldier was killed when a home-made bomb exploded at 1:30 am (2130 GMT Saturday) in the northern part of the Iraqi capital.
A Dutch soldier was killed and several wounded in clashes between multinational forces and insurgents in southern Iraq, a military spokesman said.
"Clashes occurred Saturday night in which one Dutch soldier was killed while several were wounded," said a spokesman for the British military from the southern city of Basra.
The Dutch defence ministry confirmed that a 29-year old soldier had died and five other were severely wounded but were now in a stable condition.
The ministry's statement said the soldiers were hit after a Dutch army vehicle near Ar Rumaythah close to the Dutch base in As Samawah came under attack.
According to the ministry it was not clear who was responsible for the attack, but the Dutch army will open an investigation.
This is only the second time a Dutch soldier has died in Iraq. The Netherlands has some 1,300 troops stationed in southern Iraq under British command.
A Ukrainian officer was killed by a mine blast yesterday south of Bagdad, a spokesman for the multinational division operating in central Iraq said.
The officer, Yuri Ivanov, died while patrolling the outskirts of the predominately Shiite city of Suwayrah, Colonel Artur Domanski was quoted as saying by Polish news agency PAP.
"No other soldier in the patrol unit
was injured," he added.
Eight Ukrainians have died thus far in Iraq, according to the commander of the Ukrainian contingent, also quoted by PAP.
Earlier eight Iraqis were killed and 10 others wounded, mostly women and children, Saturday after US troops clashed with insurgents in Fallujah, the flashpoint city west of Baghdad and warplanes struck two homes, hospital sources told AFP.
"We have received eight killed and 10 injured," said doctor Ali Khamis at Fallujah's general hospital, adding that the dead included two women and two children.
The US military said earlier it struck positions suspected of being used by insurgents after they attacked a US marine postition on the outskirts of the city at about 2:00 pm (1000 GMT) with rocket propelled grenades and machine gun and small arms fire.
One home in the city's southern Al-Shuhada neighbourhood was leveled while another in the adjacent Al-Jubail area was partially destroyed after the US strikes, an AFP correspondent said.
The homes were struck after US marines clashed with insurgents in the city's eastern Al-Askari neighbourhood, residents said.
Angry residents then buried the dead.
A pick-up truck filled with masked fighters was seen escorting the funeral processions as people shouted slogans against the United States and the interim Iraqi government.
In the last two months US forces have conducted several air strikes in the Sunni Muslim stronghold, 50km west of Baghdad, on suspected hideouts of fighters linked to alleged al-Qaeda operative, Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi.