18 killed as US tanks pound militias

American tanks and AC-130 gunships pounded militia positions early today near two shrines in the centre of the holy city of Karbala killing 18 fighters loyal to a rebel cleric.

The fighting started after insurgents fired several rocket-propelled grenades at US tanks that were patrolling around Karbala’s so-called “Old City,” said US Army Colonel Pete Mansoor of the 1st Armoured Division.

The tanks returned fire, and more than two hours of heavy fighting followed. Smoke billowed from burning buildings. A rebel weapons cache was hit, the military said.

Much of the fighting was near the city’s Imam Hussein and Imam Abbas shrines, which US forces allege are being used by militiamen as firing positions or protective cover. Mansoor said the shrines were not damaged.

Cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who launched an uprising against the US-led occupation of Iraq last month, has accused US forces of desecrating holy sites.

The dead included a driver for a camera crew of the Al-Jazeera television network, the station reported.

Rashid Hamid Wali, 40, died while assisting a crew from the Qatar-based network that was filming the clashes from a hotel roof shortly after midnight, said Ahmed al-Sheikh, the network’s news editor in Qatar.

It was unclear who was responsible.

There was also overnight fighting between US forces and al-Sadr loyalists in another holy city, Najaf. One civilian died and another was injured when their car was caught in the crossfire, hospital officials said.

Near Baqouba, north of Baghdad, gunmen in pickup trucks opened fire today on a base of the Iraqi security forces, killing four, Iraqi authorities said. The dead men were members of the US-backed Iraqi Civil Defence Corps.

A US marine died in a vehicle accident while conducting “security and stability operations” in western Iraq, the military said.

The marine assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force died in the westernmost region of Anbar province, the military said. The death was classified as “non-hostile”.