Iran arming militia, says Iraqi official

NAJAF, Iraq — With fighting raging for a fifth day in Najaf, Iraq’s interim defense minister yesterday accused Iran of sending weapons to Shi’ite insurgents in the city.

Meanwhile, radical Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr vowed, that he would continue the battle “until the last drop of my blood has been spilled.”

The uprising by Sheik al-Sadr’s militia began to affect Iraq’s crucial oil industry, as pumping to the southern port of Basra was halted by threats to infrastructure, an official with the South Oil Co. said.

Clashes also intensified in Basra, where a British soldier was killed and several others wounded in fighting near Sheik al-Sadr’s office, the British Defense Ministry said. Iraqi police reported three militants killed and more than 10 wounded.

Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan, who previously had described Iran as Iraq’s “first enemy,” made the comments about his country’s eastern neighbor during an interview broadcast on the Arab-language television network Al Arabiya.

“There are Iranian-made weapons that have been found in the hands of criminals in Najaf who received these weapons from across the Iranian border,” Mr. Shaalan said.

Asked whether Iran was still considered the “top enemy” of Iraq, he answered ambiguously.

“From far and near, the facts that we have say that what has happened to the Iraqi people is done by the one who is considered the top enemy,” he said.

“For the first time, the Iraqis see the bodies of children, the body parts of children, the bodies of women and the body parts of women on the street. Yes. This is the truth.”

Najaf Gov. Adnan al-Zurufi said last week that 80 men who fought U.S. forces at a sprawling cemetery in Najaf were Iranian. “There is Iranian support to al-Sadr’s group, and this is no secret,” he said on Friday.

Iran has denied interfering in Iraq. It says it does not allow fighters to cross into Iraq, but it does not rule out that such people might cross the long border illegally.

Mahdi’s Army, Sheik al-Sadr’s militia, has been battling U.S. troops and Iraqi security forces in Najaf since Thursday.

U.S. forces yesterday tried once more to drive the militiamen from the cemetery, and an American tank rattled up to within 400 yards of the revered Imam Ali shrine, which fighters reportedly have been using as a base.

Meanwhile, Sunni Muslim militants attacked targets around Baghdad. A suicide car bombing aimed at a deputy governor killed six persons, and a roadside bomb hit a bus, killing four passengers.

The U.S. military also said a U.S. Marine was killed in action on Sunday in the western province of Anbar. The death brought to at least 927 the number of American troops who have died in Iraq since the start of the war.

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