Heavy fighting erupted near a sacred mosque in the Iraqi city of Najaf yesterday as US and Iraqi forces tightened their grip around Shi’ite militants after a threatened assault on the shrine did not go ahead.

American tanks and troops advanced closer to the Imam Ali mosque after US aircraft unleashed their firepower overnight on rebels who have defied the interim government by refusing to leave the shrine and end a bloody three-week rebellion. Gunfire rocked the area and smoke rise high into the sky.

US Army 1st Lieutenant Michael Throckmortan, speaking not far from the mosque, said American and Iraqi forces were trying to isolate the militia in one place before an attack.

“What we are trying to do is shape the battlefield to create the big picture. We are trying to do everything that will give us the advantage”, Throckmortan told Reuters.

Asked what Iraqi forces who entered the battle zone for the first time on Tuesday would do, Throckmortan said: “We hope that they are the first ones to set foot inside (the shrine).”

Iraqi Defence Minister Hazim al-Shalaan had warned the Mehdi fighters loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr they would be wiped out if they did not leave the mosque by Tuesday evening.

US and Iraqi officials have said only Iraqi forces would storm the mosque.

Asked about reports some militia had fled the shrine, Throckmortan said: “I’ve seen no evidence they are leaving.” Iraqi troops came within 400 metres (yards) of the shrine on Tuesday, and roads around it were sealed off. The combined forces advanced slightly closer yesterday.

Around 500 Iraqi troops have been deployed around the mosque, the first time government forces had entered the battle zone in a conflict that has undermined Prime Minister Iyad Allawi’s authority only two months after he took over from US led occupiers.

Warning mocked

Overnight, a US AC-130 gunship joined an attack on militia positions. The barrage left Najaf’s old city shrouded in smoke that concealed the bright floodlighting of the shrine.

One Sadr aide said on Tuesday the militia was willing to hold talks to end the fighting. But another mocked Shalaan’s threat the latest in a series of government ultimatums.

“Let him throw his warnings in the trash along with his previous statements about last chances in the last three weeks,” Aws al-Khafaji told Al Jazeera television on Tuesday.

“What will Shalaan tell himself if morning comes and the Mehdi Army is still defending the holy shrine?”

The fighting in the southern city has killed hundreds, driven oil prices to record highs and sparked clashes in several other Iraqi towns and cities.

Some 2 000 US marines backed by aircraft and tanks have done most of the fighting, pounding rebels whose main weapons are AK-47 assault rifles, rocket propelled grenades and mortars.

But any raid by US troops on the shrine could trigger mass protests from the majority Shi’ite community. US aircraft attacked targets in the Iraqi city of Falluja early on Wednesday, killing three people and wounding four others, a hospital official said.

Ahmad Ali, a doctor at the Falluja General Hospital, said the toll could rise. The attacks, in the east of the volatile city west of Baghdad, sent large plumes of smoke high into the air, wit-nesses said.

US forces have launched several air strikes in recent months on buildings in Falluja it said were being used by fighters linked toal Qaeda ally Abu Musabal-Zarqawi.

In Baghdad on Tuesday, insurgents tried to assassinate Iraq’s environment and education ministers in separate bombings that killed five of their bodyguards.

The attacks were the latest attempts to kill officials in Allawi’s government. Allawi himself has been threatened with death by Zarqawi.

<B>LOGISTICS OF THE MARCH</B>

Iraq’s Sistani to return to Iraq

■ Iraq’s most influential Shi’ite cleric is on his way home to the country from treatment in London and wants all Iraqis to march on the battle-scarred city of Najaf, a senior aide said yesterday. The aide, Hamed al-Khafaf, told Reuters that Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani should arrive within hours.

“Najaf is burning. Ayatollah al-Sistani is on his way back and calls on Iraqis from all provinces to join him in the holy city,” he said by telephone from Beirut. The logistics of the march and where Sistani will first arrive in Iraq will be known shortly, Khafaf said.

US forces have been advancing further on the holy Imam Ali Shrine in the centre of Najaf, where followers of anti-US cleric Moqtada al-Sadr have taken refuge. Sadr has also challenged the collegiate leadership of the Najaf clergy led by the elder Sistani.

In an interview broadcast on the BBC earlier yesterday, one of Sistani’s aides in London had said the cleric was still in hospital there. “His doctors are not yet allowing him to go back,” Sayed Mohamed Musawi said.

<B>Michael Georgy</B>