Fierce fighting after cleric rejects peace demands

Fierce fighting broke out around Najaf’s holy shrine today after a rebel cleric rejected government peace demands and said: “Either martyrdom or victory.”

US tanks and warplanes pounded the area around the Shiite holy place in what may have been a precursor to the government threatened storming of the shrine where militant cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's gunmen are holed up.