Rebels urged to quit as troops surround holy shrine

US and Iraqi forces battled militants in Najaf today and Iraqi National Guardsmen advanced to within 200 yards of the holy city’s Imam Ali Shrine compound, where insurgents loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr have been holed up for weeks.

However, a raid into the shrine would not be launched in the coming hours, Iraqi Defence Minister Hazem Shaalan told Al-Arabiya television.

In Baghdad, the convoys of two government ministers were attacked killing five people and a suicide bomber but left the ministers unharmed.

Many militants have fled the Najaf shrine and the surrounding area over the last few days as nearly three weeks of fighting has intensified, witnesses said.

Iraqi forces accompanied US troops into the Old City for the first time in recent days and were stationed about 200 yards from the shrine.

Clashes between militants and the combined US and Iraqi forces sent the crackle of gunfire ringing through the streets as plumes of black smoke rose above the city.

“Today, they complete the operation of encircling the shrine compound,” Shaalan said.

Iraqi officials have said that any raid on the shrine would be conducted by Iraqi forces.

Fears that the violence could spread outside Iraq have led some of Iraq’s neighbours to call for international intervention to resolve the Najaf crisis, a call that Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari rejected out of hand.

“Iraq will not support or participate in any attempt to internationalise this issue because it is between the legal government and outlaws who threaten the security of the state and the general order,” he said.

Shalaan said Iraqi troops in Najaf would use loudspeakers to urge militants to evacuate the shrine.

These calls will continue “for a long time to give another humanitarian chance for them to surrender”, Shaalan said.

“If they don’t … listen to reason, then certainly there will be a very simple operation, a very simple raid,” he said. “The decisive hours are near.”