One Iraqi child killed, violent fighting in al-Najaf, al-Sader refuses withdrawal

The Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sader rejected the pardoning given by the prime minister of the Interim Iraqi government Eyad Allawi to the fighters of al-Mahdi army during his visit to Najaf yesterday.

In a press conference, Ahmad al-Sheibani, the spokesman for al-Sader said that members of al-Mahdi army are not criminals so as to be included by the pardoning. They are rather legitimate resistance men of the occupation, stressing that al-Mahdi army will not withdraw from Najaf.

One of al-Sader's aides Abdul Hadi al-Darraji, considered " Allawi behaved like dictator Saddam Hussein when he had visited Najaf," as he alleged.

Al-Darraji deplored these proposals considering them as "a deception " from the Interim Government. He accused Allawi of planning together with the governor of Najaf, Adnan al-Zarfi, for the first phase of destroying Najaf and greenlighting the next military operation.

Following hours of calm which coincided with Allawi's visit to the city which has been witnessing during the four past days. Confrontations erupted in Dar al-Salam cemetery between the American forces supported by the Iraqi police and groups of al-Sader supporters.

The American helicopters renewed its bombardment of positions where al-Sader fighters are fortifying in the city. Two helicopters bombarded the cemetery and explosions were heard in the downtown of al-Najaf.

Al-Sader supporters said they downed one American helicopter during the clashed which took place in al-Sader city in Baghdad between them and American forces. The American army said that the helicopter was obliged to land near Baghdad and its pilots landed safely.

In Baghdad, medical sources stressed that a ten- year old Iraqi child was killed and other 16 injured as one mortar shelling fell in al-Sadoun quarters in the downtown of Baghdad.

One of the two shelling hit a small truck while the second fell near a police center, 100 meters from Baghdad hotel.