US troops shelled Iraqi Shi?ite militia in the holy city of Kerbala during six hours of heavy fighting that left several people dead yesterday, among them a journalist for the Arab television channel Al-Jazeera.

As mosques filled for Friday prayers, the confrontation with Shi?ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr showed no sign of resolution six weeks after his Mehdi Army?s rose up across the south.

Sadr, a young firebrand whose fighters US generals dismiss as «street thugs», is demanding US forces quit Iraq. The US authority in Iraq wants Sadr arrested over the murder of a rival cleric last year. He has taken refuge among holy sites at Najaf.

Najaf was relatively quiet. In Kerbala, four Iraqis were killed and eight wounded, hospital staff said. Al-Jazeera said one of its employees, Rashid Hamid Wali, was shot dead as he worked with a television crew on the fourth floor of a hotel.

US tanks and armoured vehicles pulled back from the holiest mosques in Kerbala shortly before Friday midday prayers.

With six weeks to go before the United States relinquishes its sovereign role as occupier, there were signs other Iraqi politicians are tapping in to popular irritation with the US presence to build a base for elections due in the new year.

Notable among these is Ahmad Chalabi, once the Pentagon?s tip to succeed Saddam Hussein. His falling out with Washington could not have been made more visible than by a raid by Iraqi police and US troops on his home and offices on Thursday.

While stopping short of endorsing Sadr?s armed campaign against the occupation, Chalabi, himself one of Iraq?s Shi?ite Muslim majority, has vocally criticised the US military crackdown in the holy cities for preventing a peaceful solution.

«We object to the transgressions of heavy armour into the holy cities of Najaf and Kerbala,» a furious Chalabi said at a news conference after the raid on his offices.

Giving as good as they get, US officials are briefing off the record against their former ally, suggesting he is pursuing his own business goals and even, in the case of officials quoted by CBS television, saying he passed sensitive information to Shi?ite Iran, which is hostile to the United States.

Chalabi is demanding that there should be no limitations on the Iraqi sovereignty to be handed over on June 30, notably on control of its vast oil resources and its armed forces.

US President George W. Bush is due to lay out his plan on Monday for the handover, which is supposed to have UN backing and be followed in about six months by elections. U.S. officials say their generals will keep control of Iraq?s armed forces and there should be international supervision of its oil revenues.

Chalabi, whose offices were raided as part of fraud probe by an Iraqi judge working closely with the US authorities, has found little popular support since returning from wealthy exile in the West. His language has turned increasingly populist. «Let my people go...It is time for the Iraqi people to run their affairs,» he said.

New images amplify abuse at Ghraib

In a collection of hundreds of so-far-unreleased photographs and short digital videos obtained by The Washington Post, US soldiers are shown physically and emotionally abusing detainees at Iraq?s Abu Ghraib prison, the newspaper reported yesterday.

The new pictures and videos go beyond the photos previously shown in the media, displaying a variety of abusive techniques and US soldiers appearing to delight in abuse of detainees at the US-run prison near Baghdad, the newspaper said.

Photos and videos from Abu Ghraib were presented to Army investigators in January. The images began surfacing publicly last month, severely damaging the US reputation in the Arab world. The Post said one video clip showed five hooded and naked detainees standing against the wall in the darkness, each masturbating, with two other hooded detainees crouched at their feet. Another segment of video showed a prisoner handcuffed to the outside of a cell door, slamming his head into the green metal, the newspaper said.

An image on the newspaper?s Web site showed a soldier wielding a baton as a naked detainee covered in a brown substance stood in a hallway with his arms outstretched and ankles cuffed together. Another photo showed a prisoner in an orange jumpsuit recoiling from a snarling dog, it said.

In a description of some photos the article said: «Hooded and cloaked men are handcuffed to hallway rails. A prisoner in flexible handcuffs is made to use a banana to simulate anal sex. Two naked male detainees are handcuffed to each other. A naked detainee hangs upside down from a top bunk.»

Last spanish troops

The last Spanish troops have left their base in Diwaniya, southern Iraq, state radio reported yesterday.

«There are no longer any Spanish soldiers in the Spanish base. This base, as such, has ceased to exist,» state radio?s correspondent in Diwaniya said. «The last and only Spaniard in Diwaniya is this correspondent,» he added. The radio said within a few hours no Spanish soldiers would be left in Iraq. A Defence Ministry spokesman in Madrid said he was unable to confirm the report.

The soldiers were among the last remaining in Iraq from a force of up to 1,400 sent by the previous pro-American government. They had been stationed in a largely Shi?ite Muslim area of south-central Iraq, including the cities of Najaf and Diwaniya.

Spain?s month-old Socialist government ? elected three days after March 11 train bombings killed 191 people in Madrid ? has been withdrawing the troops, fulfilling a campaign promise made before the railway attacks.