Najaf Fighting Worst Since Saddam's Fall
By ABDUL HUSSEIN AL-OBEIDI
Associated Press Writer
NAJAF, Iraq (AP) -- U.S. helicopter gunships and fighter jets pounded Shiite Muslim insurgents hiding in a sprawling cemetery Friday in the most intense fighting in this holy city since the fall of Saddam Hussein. The U.S. military said 300 militants were killed in the past two days.
The clashes between coalition forces and militant Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army flared in Shiite communities across the country, killing dozens of other Iraqis, according to Iraqi officials and the militants.
The fighting, which began early Thursday, threatened to reignite the bloody, two-month Shiite insurrection that broke out in April - and the heavy U.S. response appeared designed to quash militia activity quickly and prevent a repeat.
Al-Sadr on Friday blamed all the violence in Iraq on the United States, which he called "our enemy and the enemy of the people," in a sermon read on his behalf at the Kufa Mosque near Najaf.
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