Sadr forces warned of imminent attack

REBEL forces inside the Imam Ali Shrine in Najaf were warned yesterday they have “hours to surrender” or face attack from US and Iraqi forces.

“The decisive hours are near,” said Iraqi defence minister Hazem Shaalan.

Meanwhile, in Baghdad, assassins bombed the convoys of two Iraqi cabinet ministers in separate attacks that killed five bodyguards but left the officials unharmed. The al-Qaida-linked militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s Tawhid and Jihad group claimed responsibility for one attack.