The three top Shiite Muslim clerics threatened by a mob in Iraq’s holy city of Najaf were safe today after they were rescued by tribal supporters, a cleric in Kuwait said.

Coalition aircraft today struck the home of an Iraqi general known as ”Chemical Ali” for ordering a poison gas attack that killed thousands of Kurds in 1988.

The US military is fighting perhaps the most accurate air war in history, with most of the 8,000 precision-guided bombs and missiles loosed on Iraq blasting their intended targets.

TWO of television’s marquis journalists were dismissed from high-profile reporting assignments in Iraq yesterday, chastised for allegedly breaking ironclad, if sometimes unspoken rules that govern reporting in the US-led war there.

Thunderous explosions rocked Baghdad today and a towering column of orange smoke rose over the city as the coalition forces unleashed their most powerful bombardment in days.