Clashes Shatter Cease-Fire in Iraqi Holy City (2 US dead)

[papau]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraq6aug06,1,741929.story?coll=la-headlines-world

August 6, 2004 THE CONFLICT IN IRAQ
Clashes Shatter Cease-Fire in Iraqi Holy City (2 US dead)
The fighting spreads from Najaf to Basra and Baghdad after cleric Sadr issues a call to arms. Two U.S. troops are killed and 16 hurt.
By Edmund Sanders, Times Staff Writer


NAJAF, Iraq — Heavy clashes erupted in this holy city Thursday between Iraqi and U.S. forces and followers of radical cleric Muqtada Sadr, shattering a two-month cease-fire and provoking his militia to rise up in three other cities.

The battles in Najaf killed two U.S. troops, 12 Iraqis — including at least five police officers — and more than a dozen Sadr militants, according to U.S. and hospital officials. Forty Iraqi civilians also were wounded.

Amid the fighting, the Shiite Muslim cleric issued a call to arms, urging his supporters to "confront this infidel enemy."

The clashes marked the fiercest fighting in southern Iraq since May, when U.S. troops began negotiating an end to a standoff with Sadr that had crippled Najaf and Kufa and fueled unrest and anti-American sentiments among the nation's large Shiite Muslim population.<snip>