I’ll update this post throughout the day.
The US is bombing Al Sadr’s house and has sealed off the southern entrance to the Imam Ali shrine and blocked all roads leading to the shrine. US tanks occupy downtown Najaf. The deputy governor in Najaf has resigned in protest against the US actions in Najaf.
The town of Kut was bombed for two hours last night. The death toll is at least 75 dead and 148 wounded, many women and children, according to Kut hospital director Khader Fadal Arar.
A British soldier died from a roadside bomb explosion in Basra.
UPDATE: AFP reports:
Iraq’s top Sunni Muslim body on Thursday warned the security forces against supporting the US military in the fight at the holy city of Najaf.
The Association of Muslim Scholars issued a fatwa, or religious edict, forbidding Muslims from offering any support to the forces of “occupation.”
“It is forbidden for any Muslim to cooperate with the occupation forces and killing their own brothers and fellow citizens,” it said.
“Iraqi police and members of civil defence (national guards) should fear God’s punishment and wrath of the people as they battle with the occupation and participate in the shedding of their brothers’ blood.”
Calling the Najaf fight as an act of “genocide” by the US forces, the association said the clashes in the holy city were against both sharia Islamic law and civil laws.
“What is going in Najaf at the hands of American forces is nothing but genocide and criminal acts forbidden by sharia and civil laws as it is affecting everyone who rejects the occupation,” it said.
“It is affecting the holy Muslim values and the shrines. It makes thousands of women and children leave the city.”
UPDATE: This post by As’ad AbuKhalil is a must read for anyone who doesn’t understand the significance of the mistake that the US is currently committed to making in Najaf. The depth of ignorance displayed by the Bushistas is ghastly.
UPDATE: US forces have stormed the home of Moqtada al Sadr. US soldiers are inside his house.
UPDATE: Ominous: Thousands of Shiites Headed For Najaf – Thousands of Shiites have headed from Karbala to Najaf to make a “live shield” and protect Muslim sanctuaries, announced ITAR- TASS. Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr’s supporters from Kut have also headed for Najaf.
UPDATE: Poster grrpy is also posting updates in the comments, so be sure and check them out. He has one from the AFP on an Italian site that he has translated:
Masses of civilians are escaping from the holy city where combatants are in engaged in violent conflict. On this the news is conflicting. According to a correspondent for AFP. In fact, the Shia militia of Moqtada Sadr still controls the heart of the old city of Najaf. According to the correspondent, the militia this afternoon still controlls an area of two kilometers surounding the outskirts of the Shrine of Imam Ali .
Previously, it was claimed that the American Forces controlled the center of the Shia holy city and in particular the access to the Shrine.
See here for the link, and thank you, grrpy, for the updates and translations.
UPDATE: The Christian Science monitor reports:
Meanwhile in the crucial oil-port city of Basra, where 90 percent of the country’s oil flows out to global markets, Sadr’s Mahdi Army controls the center of the city. They took the city after British troops stopped patrolling and retreated into their bases following heavy fighting on Tuesday. The fighting left one British soldier dead and many injured. Since then the Mahdi Army have taken over the streets. The Iraqi police still there are working hand-in-hand with the rebels.
UPDATE: IWPR:
In central Najaf, Sadrist fighters hid in the alleys behind the hotels formerly used by pilgrims. The sky was hidden by a pall of wind-borne dust and smoke from burning buildings.
In the al-Ameer neighbourhood, four uniformed policemen stood with three Mahdi Army fighters beside their car.
Hidden behind a building, they were listening to their radios and informing the militiamen of their fellow officers’ movements.
“I have four cousins in the al-Mahdi army,” one of the officers said.
He went on to explain, “According to the proverb, ‘my brother and I are against my cousin, but my cousin and I are against the foreigner. Thus, I can’t fight against my cousins and stand beside the Americans.”
Soon after, one of the fighters emerged into the street, and shouting “Ali!” he fired his RPG at a concrete barrier erected up the road by the Americans.
Then he ran back into the alley, climbed into the police car, and was driven away.