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Clashes continue to rage thru' Najaf

3 GIs, 5 Iraqis killed in fighting, American journalist kidnapped

AFP, Najaf
Clashes broke out in Najaf ahead of an expected major military assault on Shia militiamen, as a key national conference decided yesterday to send delegates to the holy city in an effort to bring rebel leader Moqtada Sadr back from the brink.
And in a hint of the possible cost of an attack by US and Iraqi government forces, the US military said that three US marines were killed "as a result of enemy action" in Najaf province Sunday.
Violent but sporadic fighting erupted early afternoon between Sadr's Mehdi Army and US-backed Iraqi forces closing on the rebels'
stronghold in the city's shrine area.
Tank and automatic gunfire could be heard throughout the Old City as plumes of smoke spewed into the sky, on the second day of intermittent clashes after talks broke down between Sadr and the Iraqi government.
"A major assault by forces will be launched quickly to bring the Najaf fight to an end," interior ministry spokesman Sabah Kadhim said late Sunday.
Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has insisted that the militia disarm and quit Najaf for there to be any peaceful solution to the crisis.
On Sunday, foreign and Iraqi journalists and cameramen were ordered out of Najaf by local police, as
authorities said their safety could not be guaranteed.
One person was killed and two wounded Sunday when US troops fired on pro-Sadr demonstrators near the cemetery, a surgeon told AFP.
Bullets also hit the northern wall of the Imam Ali shrine, eyewitnesses said.
In Baghdad, the national conference decided to send a delegation to urge Sadr to withdraw his fighters from Najaf and turn his militia into a political party, on the second day of the meet.
Participants approved by a show of hands the proposal put forward by a relative of Sadr, Baghdad Shia cleric Sheikh Hussein al-Sadr.
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"We must work together to convince Moqtada Sadr and the dear brothers in the Mehdi Army to transform (their militia) into a political party whatever its leaning," he told the conference.
"We can come to an agreement on this through negotiations. We are ready to defend ourselves as we are ready for peace," said Sadr spokesman, Sheikh Ahmed Shaibani, in response to the initiative.
And in the southern city of Nasiriyah deputy governor Adnan al-Sharifi said a US journalist, Micah Garen, was kidnapped Saturday while reporting on archaeological sites in the area.
Garen is the founder and head of Four Corners Media, a company specialising in film, photo and written documentaries with offices in New York and Colorado, according to its website.
The head of archaeological services in Nasiriyah, Abdul Amir al-Hamdani, said Garen had been living for the past few days in a hotel in the city, 375 kilometres (235 miles), south of Baghdad.
Hamdani said he had fallen foul of Italian troops in the area after accusing them of killing civilians, including a pregnant woman, in a clash 10 days before with Shia militia.
Meanwhile, three US soldiers were killed in the Iraqi province of Najaf on
Sunday during clashes with Shia militiamen, the US military said Monday.
"Three US soldiers attached to the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit were killed as a result of enemy action in the Najaf province on August 15," a US military statement said.
In line with Marine practice, it gave no further details of the incident, which brought the number of US soldiers killed in hostile action to 698 since the war in Iraq began in March last year.
Earlier five people were killed when US forces carried out multiple bombing raids in the flashpoint Iraqi city of Fallujah, west of Baghdad, on Sunday, a doctor said.
"Five people were killed and six wounded," said a doctor at the Fallujah general hospital.
"The Americans fired seven missiles," he added, five of which fell in Hay al-Askari, in western Fallujah, one in al-Shuhada in the south and one in al-Sinaa in the eastern part of the city.
"It started at 11:30 am (0830 GMT). The operation was defensive in nature and not offensive as our marines were being targeted and shot by small arms and RPGs," said Lieutenant Colonel T.V. Johnson.
"We gave air support and carried out six different sorties during the day. Right now, it has stopped. We do it as and when needed," he added.