US diam diam menyerang membunuh 41 militianmen. Apakah ini adalah 
Pelanggaran gencatan senjata? ada musuh di depan mata US, mengapa 
tidak ada perasaaan perikemanusiaan untuk melihat dekat masalah 
masalah dengam para pejuang Irak? US hanya menyerang siapa yang 
menghalangi jalan pasukan US. 

 Sudah banyak pelanggaran HAM dan patut dipertanyakan apakah itu 
hanya tujuan US menyerang? Para pejuang Irak perlu lebih memikirkan 
jernih, kesabaran dan menggunakan penyelesaian masalah ini.

wassalam,

----------------------------------------------------
U.S. Seizes Najaf Governor's House, Kills 41 Militiamen

By Khaled Farhan and Suleiman al-Khalidi 

NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. forces battled militia loyal to radical 
Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr near the holy city of Najaf Thursday, 
seizing the governor's mansion and killing 41 militia fighters in a 
lightning operation. 

Reuters Photo 

Witnesses said seven or eight U.S. tanks surrounded the governor's 
house, about five km (three miles) from the sensitive religious sites 
in the city center, and troops took occasional fire from militiamen 
holed up in the area using AK-47s and rocket propelled grenades. 

U.S. tanks also moved into nearby Kerbala, another city holy to 
Shi'ite Muslims, about 100 km (60 miles) southwest of Baghdad.. The 
tanks took up positions close to the main shrines after destroying 
Sadr offices with machinegun fire. 

Najaf locals said some fleeing militiamen had taken refuge in their 
homes, raising fears U.S. forces could be drawn into urban fighting 
if they decided to flush out militia in the area. 

Doctors at a local hospital said they had received three dead from 
the area -- two women and a nine-year-old child -- and were also 
treating at least nine wounded, some of them women. 

The troops retook the governor's office as Paul Bremer, the U.S.-
appointed administrator of Iraq (news - web sites), named a new 
governor for the city and again denounced Sadr as an outlaw. 

A senior coalition military official said the governor's office had 
been taken largely without a fight. 

But east of the city, across the Euphrates River, U.S. forces drew 
out fighters of Sadr's Mehdi Army, and killed 41 of them in fierce 
fighting, the official said. He gave no details about any U.S. 
casualties. 

Lieutenant Colonel Pat White, head of the 2nd Battalion, 37th Armored 
Brigade around the governor's mansion, said his force was still 
taking fire from areas around the building. 

"In order to secure the governor's compound we are getting contact 
from all sides and we are dealing with it now. Looks like the enemy 
is now breaking contact," he told CNN. 

As he was being interviewed, his voice was drowned out by gunfire, 
which he identified as being from a heavy machine gun on one of the 
tanks guarding the compound. 

"If you gonna go down in there, you'd better be prepared for it 
because there are a lot of them," he said, adding that his battalion 
had killed about 20 Mehdi Army fighters. 

FIGHTING IN KERBALA 

In Kerbala, witnesses said about eight heavy armored vehicles and six 
lighter vehicles were positioned in the city center, about 500 meters 
(yards) from the Imam Hussein and Imam Abbas shrines. 

Witnesses earlier said U.S. troops were engaging Mehdi Army fighters 
firing RPGs, AK-47s and mortar rounds near the city's center. 

Italian troops also clashed with Sadr's militiamen, engaging in a 
short gunbattle south of Nassiriya, Italian officials said. 

U.S.-led forces in Iraq are trying to crush Sadr's militia before a 
scheduled June 30 hand over of sovereignty to Iraqis. They have said 
they will refrain from entering Shi'ite shrines in Najaf and Kerbala, 
which would incite widespread fury. 

Mainstream Iraqi Shi'ite leaders urged Sadr this week to disarm and 
allow a political end to his nearly month-long standoff with 
occupying troops in and around Najaf. 

Earlier, as the operation was launched, witnesses reported seeing 
plumes of smoke rising from a cemetery on the fringes of the city as 
U.S. helicopters swooped low over the area. 

Bremer, speaking to reporters as he appointed the new governor for 
Najaf, denounced Sadr, saying he had used the holy sites of the 
region -- which are deeply sacred to Iraq's 60 percent Shi'ite 
majority -- to launch his rebellion. 

"These armed bands have fired mortars from the mosque of Kufa, they 
have stored arms and munitions in the mosques of Iraq's holy cities," 
Bremer said as he installed Adnan Zurfi as Najaf's governor. 

The Shi'ite leaders called on Sadr to pull out of mosques in the area 
and Bremer suggested the U.S.-led occupation would help them reassert 
control over Najaf and other cities held by rebels, without 
specifying how. 

Bremer called on Sadr, who is wanted in connection with the murder of 
another Shi'ite cleric last year, to surrender. 



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