Huge US attack to crush Iraq rebels: "Until now, the US has avoided launching an all-out offensive against Najaf for fear of antagonising Iraqi Shias. In recent weeks, however, US officials in Baghdad have been repeatedly threatening to kill or capture Mr Sadr, who has led an uprising against the US occupation.
On Monday US troops killed dozens of his supporters instead. The move is likely to inflame Shia opinion against America, making enemies of the people who initially welcomed the invasion because it rid them of Saddam Hussein.
Yet if there is any strategic thinking on the US side about how to deal with the Najaf standoff, it was hard to find it there yesterday.
The Guardian, which was given rare access into the territory defended by Mr Sadr's army, found his fighters digging in for battle along Kufa's dusty main road. In front of the library, two men wearing red kaffir headdresses chatted next to a machine gun. Trenches had been dug outside Kufa's gold-domed mosque.
The popular sentiment was not hard to fathom - alongside portraits of Mr Sadr were slogans that read: 'Yes to the armed resistance' and 'Death to America'. "
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