BAGHDAD, Aug. 12 (UPI) -- U.S. troops backed by warplanes continued a full-out assault against Moqtada Sadr's Mehdi Army fighters in the holy city of Najaf Thursday.
Fighting also spread to nearby Kut, where Ministry of Health officials reported more than 70 fighters were killed and more than 148 were wounded in the last 24 hours. Mehdi Army fighters are loyal to radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr, who is wanted by Iraqi officials in connection with the murder of a rival cleric.
"Mehdi militia were firing on the citizens of Kut, so our Marines went in to protect them," said Sgt. Karen Pettit, a spokeswoman for coalition forces in Iraq. "They responded to an attack."
In Baghdad, protesters in the western Kadhimiya neighborhood threatened to fight Americans and to bring down the new prime minister, defense minister and interior minister, saying they worked for the CIA. Traffic was light around the capital on what is traditionally one of the busiest shopping days of the week, following a Mehdi Army announcement of a 24-hour "curfew."
"This is against the Iraqi people. They are trying to derail the reconstruction of Iraq," said Falah al-Nakib, interim interior minister in a press conference. "This is a war. This is destruction of Iraq. There has been a conspiracy against Iraq."
Al-Nakib said he was open to negotiations with Sadr, although he added that none had taken place yet. Sadr has said he will fight to the "last drop of blood" and that his army should fight on even if he is killed.
"This protest was organized by the Mehdi Army, but we don't support them," said Abed Hashim, 23, who was tending a chicken shwarma sandwich stand near the protest site in Kadhimiya neighborhood in west Baghdad. "I don't dislike them, but they don't keep their promises."
Another shopkeeper said protesters threatened that if he didn't close his shop, it would be burned and looted when fighting broke out. He stayed open, but was locking up around the 6 p.m. deadline the protesters had imposed.
"We are scared," said Ali al-Obeidi, 22, who runs a real estate rental business. "I don't know what to feel about them. I feel patriotic, but I don't want to be threatened."
Ministry of Health officials took five ambulances to Najaf to evacuate the wounded, said Khalid Naimy, an International Committee for the Red Cross spokesman. Aid agencies delivered three tons of medical supplies to Najaf, including surgical kits, IV fluids and antibiotics.
U.S. troops Thursday cordoned off an estimated two-kilometer square area around the Imam Ali shrine in Najaf, where many fighters are holed up. Sadr's house was surrounded in the late afternoon, and huge plumes of black smoke could be seen shooting into the sky from the area.
Some people fled on foot from the area after U.S. and Iraqi forces called on them to leave Wednesday. Many went to Karbala, according to Red Cross reports. Others are thought still to be hiding inside their houses, Naimy said. The Red Cross said it could not tell exactly how many people might be displaced. Pettit said there was "no humanitarian crisis," created by the fighting.
"Many refuse to go out or stay with relatives in the area," Naimy said. "We don't have a clear-cut number of people who are internally displaced people."
But in most parts of the city away from the shrine, shops were open and people were going about their business, Maj. Amber Lehning, a spokeswoman for the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit Civil Affairs office, said by e-mail.
"Roughly four-fifths of the city are going about their daily lives," Lehning said.
Mehdi Army members were said to have forcibly removed patients from the maternity and pediatric center in Najaf. One hospital is open, although Najaf's main teaching hospital is closed for renovation after previous fighting and looting in April and May left it a shambles. Mehdi Army fighters occupied the hospital for several days before they were forced out by coalition troops in April.
Sadr City, a suburb of Baghdad, continued to see clashes between Mehdi Army forces and U.S. troops Thursday.
Clashes in front of the Oil Ministry building the day before were quickly brought under control by U.S. troops and Iraqi police as ministry workers cowered behind their desks inside.
Najaf's holy shrine is revered by Shiite Muslims around the world and is a popular tourist site. Prime Minister Iyad Allawi issued a statement saying the U.S. troops did not have permission to attack the shrine. Days earlier, a U.S. military spokesman said the governor of Najaf had given permission to attack the shrine if it was necessary.
Back in Kadhimiya, store owner Hamid Ramse's mood was black.
"We want the prime minister to step down because he works for the Americans, not for us," said Ramse, 50, as he chewed on a straw behind the counter of a small car parts store. "We say in Arabic, 'He who betrays his country also betrays his religion and his people.'"
