Militia, US pull back in Karbala

BAGHDAD -- After weeks of intense battle across much of southern Iraq, US forces and Shi'ite militia fighters yesterday abandoned the center of the holy city of Karbala, about 70 miles south of Baghdad, leaving behind a scene of war-front disaster, burned-out cars, and smashed buildings from heavy bombardment that has lasted more than a month.

Officials loyal to the radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said in Karbala that they were withdrawing from the center of the city, close to some of Shi'ite Muslims' holiest sites, on the expectation that US forces would quickly do the same.

''We are waiting for the agreement with the other side to be finalized this afternoon," said Ali al-Kazali, a top Sadr official. US soldiers could be seen later withdrawing from the city's center, which is dominated by a large gold-domed mosque encompassing a Shi'ite shrine.

Since early April, fighters of Sadr's so-called Mahdi Army militia have launched pitched battles against coalition forces in several cities across southern Iraq, in which hundreds of people have been killed.

While Karbala grew quiet, soldiers from the Army's Second Cavalry Division rolled at least 20 tanks and 100 soldiers into Kufa, a holy shrine city about 100 miles south of Baghdad. Sadr is believed to be in the adjoining city of Najaf.

A CNN correspondent traveling with the cavalry unit in Kufa reported at about 1 a.m. local time that US soldiers were rolling their tanks into the town, and firing artillery at the militia for the first time in several weeks.

''This is the largest show of force we have seen in several weeks," said correspondent Jane Arraf, talking on a satellite phone from Kufa. ''We've been rolling through darkened streets. It's deserted here."

Arraf reported at 2 a.m. moving with US soldiers into a huge Kufa mosque, where they uncovered a large pile of rocket-propelled grenades, Kalashnikov rifles, and mortars.

Earlier, US officials denied they had pulled out their soldiers from Karbala, telling reporters that military units had been moved.

''We've repositioned some forces inside of Karbala," Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, deputy director of military operations, said in Baghdad. ''But it is quite a stretch to consider that to be anything remotely resembling a withdrawal."

Kimmitt also suggested that the US military might be planning to send Iraqi police and civil defense units into Karbala, telling reporters, ''We would expect to see that there will be more Iraqi security presence inside the city over the next few days."

After weeks of failed cease-fire attempts, one of Sadr's top aides offered yesterday to disband the 5,000-member militia if the US military pulled their troops out of the southern cities of Karbala and Najaf.

''We are prepared to end our armed presence the moment the occupation forces leave the holy cities and give guarantees of that," said Qais al-Khazali in Najaf. ''There are no guarantees up to now that the occupying forces will not go back to the holy shrines."

US officials quickly rejected that truce offer, despite the fact that the accelerating battle has tied down large numbers of American soldiers, many of whom were due to return home to the United States last month.

US officials continued to insist yesterday that Sadr surrender unconditionally and agree to stand trial in an Iraqi court shortly after the war in the slaying of a moderate cleric.

Coalition spokesman Daniel Senor said last night that US officials would negotiate a deal with Sadr only ''if he is prepared to submit himself to justice, and if he is prepared to disband and disarm his illegal militia."

While the southern battles continued to rage, Baghdad itself was again rocked by at least four blasts.

A massive suicide car bomb exploded outside the Baghdad home of a top government official yesterday morning, killing at least five Iraqis, four of whom were bodyguards.

The bomb injured the deputy interior minister, Abdul-Jabbar Youssef al-Sheikhli, the apparent target, and his wife. Five days earlier, a vehicle suicide bomb killed this month's rotating president of Iraq's Governing Council.

A group linked to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, believed to be Al Qaeda's top operative in Iraq, claimed responsibility for yesterday's attack on Sheikhli.

Hours later, four loud explosions were heard in central Baghdad, as rockets were fired toward the coalition headquarters in the heavily guarded ''green zone." No injuries were reported.

Iraqis say they are increasingly pessimistic and nervous about the grinding violence, which has barely paused since the American occupation began more than 13 months ago.

As the clock counts down to the return of Iraqi sovereignty in less than six weeks, analysts in Baghdad say that the seemingly unstoppable violence is instilling deep cynicism among Iraqis about the future.

Iraqis generally have no clear idea of what government they want. Few expect real changes in their lives after June 30, when the American occupation authority is due to dissolve and a sovereign government, still unformed, will be installed.

''Iraqis don't feel optimistic that things will be better than their situation now," Sadoun al-Duleme, head of the Iraq Center for Research and Strategic Studies, an independent polling organization in Baghdad, said in a telephone interview. ''They don't see clearly what is going to come next. They believe everything important will be controlled by the US from the American Embassy."

With the US military's image in Iraq at perhaps its lowest point, radical leaders are increasingly popular, according to Duleme's polls.

''Because Sadr has said no to the occupiers, he has now become more popular than [Shi'ite Grand Ayatollah Ali] al-Sistani," he said.

US officials insisted again yesterday that they had targeted foreign fighters last Thursday, when an American military helicopter killed at least 40 Iraqis in the northern town of al-Qaim, near the Syrian border.

Residents told Associated Press Television News that they had been celebrating a wedding, and had fired weapons in the air, a traditional toast in Iraq. APTN footage showed several women and children buried in mass funerals.

Kimmitt repeated his assertions from Thursday, that foreign fighters had been at the scene. He said US forces had found military binoculars and foreign passports.