IRAQ: Hundreds of Iraqis marched in Najaf yesterday calling on militant cleric Moqtada al-Sadr to withdraw his fighters from the Shia holy city.
It was the largest and most public display yet of mounting local exasperation with an uprising launched last month against the US occupation and follows a US crackdown on Sheikh al-Sadr's Mahdi Army, which says it plans to open up new fronts in its war.
Early yesterday, US forces said they killed 13 militiamen and captured 14 at Kufa, near Najaf. Spurred on by rival Shia leaders, US-led forces have reasserted their presence in many southern towns and established a cordon around Najaf, where Sheikh al-Sadr remains - for now - out of reach on sacred ground.
Fighters with rifles and rocket launchers surveyed the crowd from Sheikh al-Sadr's offices beside Najaf's holy of holies, the Imam Ali shrine. His men distributed leaflets saying he would "shield" Najaf and said the protesters were American agents.
A few fired in the air as the protest broke up peacefully. But while many fear to speak out too boldly for worries of internecine bloodshed among Iraq's majority Shia Muslims, Najaf's business community has grown to despair of the damage done to its once flourishing pilgrim trade.
"I fear Shia blood will be spilled. But we don't want the Mahdi Army's gangs here and I hope the Americans rid us of them," said Mr Kazem Saleh, a garment trader among the crowd.
Meanwhile, an Iraqi lawyer co-ordinating the trial of Saddam Hussein, and more than 100 of his top officials, say he will be handed into Iraqi custody before the US hands over sovereignty on June 30th. Salem Chalabi said trials would start early next year and repeated that some could face the death penalty.