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    Cleric defies order to quit strife-torn Iraqi city
    (Agencies)
    Updated: 2004-08-09 17:03

    Radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Monday defied a demand from Iraq's interim government that his militia quit Najaf, after U.S. forces tightened their noose around the holy city in heavy fighting.

    "The Mehdi Army and I will keep resisting. I will stay in holy Najaf and will never leave," Sadr told a news conference at Najaf's holiest shrine, the Imam Ali mosque.

    In a move that rocked Iraq's political establishment, an Iraqi judge issued arrest warrants against leading politician and former Pentagon darling Ahmad Chalabi and his nephew Salem Chalabi, the head of the tribunal trying Saddam Hussein.


    Radical Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al Sadr speaks to journalists in Najaf's Imam Ali shrine August 9, 2004. Four days of intense fighting in the heart of Najaf, across southern Iraq and in several districts of Baghdad have killed or wounded hundreds of Shi'ite militants, the U.S. military says, and piled pressure on Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's 40-day-old government. [Rueters]

    Explosions and gunfire echoed on Monday from the heart of Najaf, Iraq's holiest Shi'ite Muslim city 160 km (100 miles) south of Baghdad. A new Shi'ite uprising has claimed hundreds of casualties in the past five days, piling pressure on interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.

    A Health Ministry official said 16 people had been killed in fighting in the past 24 hours in Iraq. But this did not include Najaf, where violence shut down most of the city.

    A suicide car bomb exploded outside the house of an official in the village of Balad Ruz north of Baghdad on Monday, killing seven police and wounding 17 people, police and the U.S. military said. The deputy governor for Diala province Akil Hamed was among the wounded.

    Allawi visited shell-scarred Najaf on Sunday and demanded militiamen loyal to al-Sadr leave their positions around holy sites and an ancient cemetery.

    On Monday, smoke rose from several places near the cemetery, scene of close-quarter fighting in recent days, as U.S. aircraft flew overhead, Reuters witnesses said.

    CHALABIS ACCUSED

    Zuhair al-Maliki, chief investigative judge of the Central Criminal Court of Iraq, said an arrest warrant had been issued against Ahmad Chalabi in connection with counterfeiting money and against Salem on a murder charge.

    Both men, who are currently outside the country, denied any wrongdoing and said the warrants were politically motivated.

    Ahmad Chalabi was once touted as a potential leader of the country but has since been spurned by Washington and many in Allawi's government.

    He said he would come home to fight the charges brought by the U.S.-appointed judge.

    "I do not know who is doing this and why. They are not patriots. I have done my duty and helped liberate Iraq," he told Reuters from Iran, where he was on holiday.

    Officials in Washington have said Chalabi is being separately investigated for leaking secrets to Iran. In 1992 he was convicted in absentia of bank fraud by a military court in Jordan. He says those charges too were politically motivated.

    Salem Chalabi, a lawyer leading the work of the Iraqi Special Tribunal which will try Saddam, also dismissed the accusations.

    "The warrant for me has to do with the fact that apparently I threatened somebody, I have no recollection of ever meeting that person, but apparently I threatened somebody who subsequently was killed," he said, speaking from Britain.

    DEATH PENALTY

    A U.S. marine was killed in action in western Iraq on Sunday, the U.S. military said. The death brought to at least 687 the number of American troops killed in Iraq since the start of last year's U.S.-led invasion.

    Overnight, insurgents fired two dozen mortars and rockets in central Baghdad during a six-hour period, raising fears that guerrillas are increasingly moving around with impunity as U.S. troops take a back seat to Iraqi security forces.

    The attacks wounded at least four people.

    Backing up Allawi's threats to get tough with insurgents, the interim government reinstated the death penalty on Sunday for crimes including murder, kidnapping and drug offences.

    Capital punishment, used liberally during Saddam's rule, was suspended by U.S. occupying authorities last year. Allawi offered an amnesty on Saturday to insurgents who had committed minor crimes.



     
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