11 die in clashes in southern Iraq

Three American soldiers and at least eight Iraqis were killed in a midnight clash at a Shiite Muslim cleric’s headquarters in the southern Iraq city of Karbala.

An earlier report from Iraqi police had indicated three Poles – not Americans - were killed.

Gunfire broke out again today in the same area of the city, where rivalries among Shiite factions have produced sporadic violence in recent weeks.

An armoured personnel carrier of the US-led coalition appeared to be firing as screaming men, women and children fled for cover.

Shiite gunmen defiantly shouted, “Allahu Akbar!” – “God is great!”

Malik Kazim, a gunman who said he was involved in the fighting, said it involved a American-Polish patrol of armoured vehicles and Humvees passing the offices of a local senior Shiite Muslim cleric, Mahmoud al-Hassani.

Since Karbala has been under a 9pm curfew, the international patrol ordered the gunmen inside the offices, but they refused and a gunbattle started.

Three American soldiers and two Iraqi policemen were killed, a Polish Defence Ministry source said in Warsaw. He said no Poles were hurt.

The Polish news agency PAP and TVN24 private television also reported the dead were Americans.

Iraqi policemen who were at the scene said one fellow officer was killed in the firefight, and Kazim said seven of his comrades were killed.

Kazim said intense gunfire lasted about a half-hour. Dozens of bullet holes, some large-calibre, could be seen in walls in the area this morning.

Polish forces lead an international brigade responsible for postwar security in the Karbala area,50 miles south of Baghdad.