I'm Expecting Major Actions In Iraq Soon

Shi'ite guerrillas have clashed with U.S. troops near Kufa as their leader, rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, has defied demands that he disband his militia to spare Iraq's holy cities from bloodshed.

U.S. President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair vowed after talks at the White House on Friday they would stamp out the rebellion launched by Sadr this month and also win a long-running battle against Sunni guerrillas.

"We stand firm," Blair, Bush's closest ally on Iraq, told a joint news conference. "We will do what it takes to win this struggle. We will not yield. We will not back down in the face of attacks, either on us or on defenceless civilians."

April has been Iraq's bloodiest month since Saddam Hussein was ousted a year ago. The U.S. military has lost at least 92 troops in combat so far this month -- more than the total killed in the three-week war that toppled Saddam.

Sadr urged the release of foreign hostages not involved in the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq. Soon afterwards, a Syrian-born Canadian aid worker kidnapped on April 8 was brought to Sadr's office in Najaf and set free.

Sadr is holed up in the southern city of Najaf, near Kufa, with U.S. forces poised outside vowing to kill or capture him.

Blasts shook Kufa, where Sadr preached in the main mosque, and his militiamen ambushed a U.S. convoy outside the town. U.S. officers said one U.S. soldier was wounded and one tank was hit.

"Then they started mortaring our position so we had to retreat," said one Shi'ite fighter, dressed in the black uniform of Sadr's Mehdi Army as smoke rose above Kufa and militiamen tried to evacuate wounded colleagues across a bridge.

Sadr said at Friday prayers he would not disband his militia under any circumstances "because I did not create it on my own but with the cooperation of the Iraqi people".

There was no sign military action was imminent in Najaf, home to some of Shi'ite Islam's holiest shrines. Any attack in Najaf could inflame Iraq's Shi'ite majority whose support is vital to U.S. plans for the country's political future.

el - The no sign military action was imminent seems to have been added.

Another report: Mediation between the US-led coalition and Moqtada Sadr have been halted, the cleric's spokesman said Saturday, expressing concern US troops were poised to attack the city. A Sudanese security guard was killed Saturday when two mortar rounds struck near two Baghdad hotels.

Mediations with the US side have been halted because the mediators have told us the Americans are putting obstacles towards finding solutions to the crisis and the situation is getting worse, A spokesman of Sadr's office told reporters.

"We are expecting the Americans to attack Najaf any moment now," he said.

U.S. Closes Two Highways Into Baghdad

Sections of the two highways, north and south of the capital, were closed off to repair damage from a mounting number of roadside bombs. Commanders suggested the routes remained vulnerable to attacks by insurgents who have been targeting U.S. military supply lines.

"We've got to fix those roads, we've also got to protect those roads,'' Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt told reporters in Baghdad.

The military warned that civilians found on the closed sections "may be considered to be anti-coalition forces'' and come under U.S. fire. Kimmitt said civilians would be redirected around the closed sections.

Militiamen attacked two U.S. Humvees outside Najaf, sparking a battle, witnesses said. Al-Sadr loyalists also fired mortars at the Spanish army base in the city, but there were no casualties.

A coalition soldier--apparently a member of the Spanish-led force in the city--was killed the night before in fighting with the militia, the U.S. military said.

Fighting on Friday also killed five militiamen, the military said. Soon after clashes Friday morning, a U.S. tank opened fire with a machinegun on a car passing its convoy, killing two civilians. An AP reporter witnessed the shooting.

A senior Shiite cleric warned Saturday that the standoff could deteriorate "into a war that will have terrible effects ... a war that will not be in the interest of anyone, especially coalition forces.''

Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Taqi al-Modaresi, a moderate cleric, said that if U.S. forces move to capture al-Sadr, it would "incite strong anger'' among Iraq's majority Shiite majority.

A top al-Sadr aide, Jabir al-Khafaji, said mediations by Iraqi politicians had ended because of U.S. conditions that the cleric's al-Mahdi Army milita be disbanded.

At the southern entrance to Fallujah, U.S. troops turned back a convoy of trucks bearing humanitarian supplies sent by the Iraqi Commerce Ministry. ``We were wanting to enter Fallujah with this aid. It's from an official agency,'' one of the truck drivers, Awad al-Jumeili, told The Associated Press at the checkpoint.

In other violence Saturday --A mortar fired into a central Baghdad neighborhood killed a Sudanese man, and in a separate attack, a rocket hit a house in the southern district of Abu Dhseer, killing an Iraqi. --Gunmen killed two Kurds in the northern city of Kirkuk in what police Brig. Gen. Mohammed Amin called an attempt to heighten ethnic tensions in the city, where Kurds, Arabs and other ethnic groups have been vying for influence.


Afghanistan continues on downward spiral

Suspected Taliban guerrillas opened fire on a security checkpoint in Afghanistan's insurgency-gripped south, killing eight soldiers, a provincial official has said.

Violence in the north and south and huge logistical challenges forced Afghan President Hamid Karzai to postpone elections from June to September.

The problems with being in and attacking Najaf - the Shiite Vatican.

Anti-U.S. Sunni and Shiite leaders have gained popular influence.