US claims to have killed 300 rebels in Najaf

US FORCES said yesterday that they had killed an estimated 300 fighters loyal to a firebrand Iraqi Shi'ite cleric in fierce clashes around the holy city of Najaf in the past two days.

However, a spokesman for radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr denied that many fighters had been killed.

He said 36 militiamen had been killed in several Iraqi cities after clashes that have felled fears of a new rebellion by radical Shi'ites.