Naseer Al-Nahr, Arab News

BAGHDAD, 14 April 2004 — A 2,500-strong US force, backed by tanks and artillery, pushed to the outskirts of Najaf yesterday for a showdown with a cleric. A US military helicopter went down near Fallujah, wounding three soldiers, and a Marine helping secure the site was killed by mortars, the military said.

An insurgent said he hit the chopper with a rocket-propelled grenade.

Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, deputy chief of US military operations in Iraq, said the Sikorsky H-53 was hit by ground fire and forced to land, wounding the three.

The team that extracted the crew and secured the craft later came under mortar fire and as it withdrew was ambushed by gunmen using small weapons and rocket-propelled grenades.

Another team went in afterward and blew up the craft to prevent it from being looted.

A Marine was killed by mortar fire, Kimmitt said. Marine spokesman 1st. Lt. Eric Knapp said seven Marines were wounded in the area.

Meanwhile, the constant string of kidnappings that has coincided with violence around Fallujah and in the south this month continued. A French journalist was reported abducted, and four Italians working as private guards were missing and feared kidnapped.

About 40 foreign hostages from 12 countries are being held by Iraqi resistance fighters, and the FBI is investigating the abductions, a coalition spokesman said yesterday. Among those held are three Japanese and truck driver Thomas Hamill whose captors had threatened to kill them.

Dan Senor, the spokesman for the US-led administration, said it would not negotiate with “terrorists or kidnappers” to gain the hostages’ release. He would not comment on efforts to free the captives.

Gen. John Abizaid, the top commander of US forces in the Middle East, said he has asked US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to adjust the US troop rotation into and out of Iraq this spring so that US commanders can have the use of perhaps 10,000 more soldiers than they otherwise would have.

On the way to Najaf, the US force’s 80-vehicle convoy was ambushed Monday night by gunmen firing small arms and setting off roadside bombs north of the city. One soldier was killed and an American civilian contractor was wounded, officers in the convoy said.

The top US commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, said their mission was to “capture or kill” Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr. Units set up a cordon on approaches to the city, barring militiamen from leaving.

Some 2,500 US troops were massed outside of the city and commanders met yesterday to review battle plans.

“We have consolidated north of Najaf and are preparing for combat operations,” said Maj. Gen. John R.S. Batiste, commander of the 1st Infantry Division.

Clashes took place yesterday when a US unit on the edges of the city pursued armed supporters of Sadr into Najaf and killed several militiamen, Batiste said. There were no further details available.

Iraqi leaders launched hurried negotiations aimed at averting a US assault on the city. Sadr was photographed by Associated Press Television News leaving yesterday.

The sons of Iraq’s three grand ayatollahs — including the most powerful one, Ali Al-Husseini Al-Sistani — met Sadr Monday night in his Najaf office and assured him of their opposition to any US strike.

“They agreed not to allow any hostile act against Sayyed Moqtada Sadr and the city of Najaf,” said a person at the meeting.