Iraq, May 23: The sound of mortars and heavy gunfire echoed around the huge cemetery of Najaf, in Iraq, early today, as US troops fought with militants loyal to rebel Shi'ite cleric Moqtada Sadr, known as the Mehdi Army. According to witnesses, Mehdi army fired mortar rounds at US forces only a few kilometers away from the city's holy shrine.

There have been sporadic clashes in Najaf on an almost daily basis this month and on Thursday (May 20) the fighting was the strongest since US tanks thrust into Najaf's ancient cemetery, considered sacred ground.

Mehdi Army militia attacked a US base on the edge of the holy Iraqi city of Najaf last Tuesday (May 18) with mortar bombs, witnesses said. There have also been fierce clashes between US-led forces and Sadr's Mehdi Army militia in other towns across the mainly Shi'ite south, since the American incursion into the Najaf cemetery, where devout Shi'ites wish to be buried.

Sadr, who preaches trenchant anti-American sermons, launched an uprising against the US led occupiers in early April and has taken refuge near the Imam Ali shrine in Najaf, one of the holiest Shi'ite sites. Bureau Report