Naseer Al-Nahr, Arab News

BAGHDAD, 7 May 2004 — US tanks swept into Shiite holy cities of Najaf and Kerbala yesterday, killing dozens of fighters loyal to Moqtada Sadr. The assaults followed a car bomb attack on the coalition headquarters here that killed six Iraqis and a US soldier early yesterday

US troops pounced on key buildings to tighten a squeeze on Sadr, who has taken refuge among Najaf’s ancient mosques.

American soldiers, whose commanders said they killed more than 40 fighters, secured the local governor’s mansion in Najaf.

At the same time, Iraq’s chief US administrator Paul Bremer said he had appointed a new man to run the city and calling on Sadr to give himself up to face charges for the murder of a fellow cleric.

Troops killed 41 of Sadr’s Mehdi Army militia at Kufa, near Najaf, after drawing them into the open, a senior US military official said. Tanks surrounded the governor’s house in Najaf, five km from Shiite holy shrines.

Bremer named Adnan Al-Zorfi as the new governor there, with major financial backing to woo disaffected young Shiites from the ranks of Sadr.

Six more fighters died when US tanks moved into the center of Karbala and destroyed an office of Sadr before withdrawing.

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

US and Polish forces earlier seized “enormous quantities” of explosives, arms and mines belonging to Sadr’s militia north of Karbala, killing one Iraqi during the swoop, a spokesman for the Polish-led multinational division said.

In the latest Baghdad bombing, a car blew up as civilians were queuing in their cars to enter the 14th of July Bridge, used only by the military and employees of the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority.

Witnesses said a suicide bomber triggered the blast at 7.28 a.m. on a roundabout near where Iraqi contractors were lining up to cross the bridge.

Flames and black smoke engulfed several cars in the queue on the heavily fortified bridge as soldiers in tanks and police sealed off the area.

The bombing was apparently claimed by a militant with ties to Al-Qaeda and US officials said it bore the hallmarks of Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, an ally of Osama Bin Laden.

Two US soldiers were also killed and two others were wounded in a roadside bomb late Wednesday in the Iraqi capital, the military said.

Coalition officials have warned of “big-bang” attacks as the June 30 date for the US-led occupation to hand over to an Iraqi provisional administration, with US forces retaining major control.

The bloodshed came as UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, tasked by the coalition with supervising the selection of an interim Iraqi government, arrived in the capital.

Meanwhile, Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television broadcast footage of a blindfolded “American” calling in faltering English on Muslim religious leaders to help free him from captivity in Iraq.

“My name is... Elias, from Denver, Colorado,” said the man, his eyes bound with a black-and-white chequered Palestinian scarf.

Newsroom staff at Al-Arabiya said his first name was Eban, a Jewish name, and that he was born in Iraq and later gained US nationality.

The US State Department said it believed the man was American.