US forces 'tighten Najaf noose'
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US tanks and Iraqi soldiers are  said to be moving into position closer to the Imam Ali shrine in the  Iraqi city of Najaf.
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NAJAF, Iraq  - The U.S. military pounded positions  held by radical clerical Moqtada al-Sadr's lightly armed  militiamen early Friday, unleashing one of its most terrifying  aircraft in a bid to break their will to fight.
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NAJAF, Iraq  - US warplanes have pounded areas near a holy shrine where radical Shi&#39;ite militia are holed up after their leader, Moqtada al-Sadr, defied a final demand from Iraq&#39;s interim prime minister to disarm.
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NAJAF, Iraq -- Radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr ordered his fighters yesterday to hand control of a revered Najaf shrine to top Shi'ite religious authorities, hours after US forces bombed militant positions and Iraq's prime minister made a ''final call&quot; for the cleric's militia to surrender.
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Iraqi militants who said they captured a  U.S. journalist last week have threatened to kill him within 48  hours, if U.S. forces do not pull out from the holy city of  Najaf, Al Jazeera television reported on Thursday.
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American commanders are preparing new battle plans for breaking Moktada al-Sadr's grip on the holy city of Najaf.
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UNITED States tanks today encircled the sacred Imam Ali shrine in the Iraqi city of Najaf, after an intense bombardment of rebel positions overnight.
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Pakistani security forces tightened their noose around a besieged mosque in Islamabad on Sunday after President Pervez Musharraf told militants barricaded inside to surrender or die.
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American tanks have reportedly encircled the Imam Ali shrine in the Iraqi city of Najaf, after intensively bombarding rebel positions overnight.
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Iraq: US planes pounded Najaf&#39;s cemetery and historic centre near the Imam Ali shrine on Monday, dimming hopes of a peaceful end to a near three-week stand-off between US-led Iraqi troops and Shiite militia.
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US troops and warplanes pounded Mehdi Army positions outside the Imam Ali mosque in Najaf early Sunday, US military officials said.
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US aircraft launched a fresh assault on Shi&#39;ite rebels in the embattled Iraqi city of Najaf early Sunday after talks on transferring control of the mosque at the center of a two-week siege ran into trouble.
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U.S. tanks rolled closer Monday to a revered Shiite shrine in Najaf where militants are hiding as explosions shook the cemetery in the holy city.
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NAJAF: US planes pounded Iraqi militias in Najaf last night after tanks rumbled to within 800 metres of a holy shrine at the centre of a near three-week insurgency.
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Description: US forces clash again in Najaf with fighters loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Efforts by the Iraqi government to reach a disarmament deal with Sadr are at an impasse, and his forces continue to hold the Imam Ali shrine.
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US officials are giving a cautious welcome to reports that radical Iraqi Shi&#39;ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr will end his rebellion in Najaf. The militia leader pledged to disarm in a letter to the national political conference in Baghdad.
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Iraqi police forces in Najaf today captured four senior aides to Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada al- Sadr, al-Arabiya reported, citing Iraqi officials.