Murder warrant for fiery Shi'ite cleric

US authorities in Iraq announced yesterday that a murder warrant was out for a radical Shi'ite Muslim cleric leading violent anti-American protests, but his followers swore to fight back if he was arrested.

Dan Senor, a senior spokesman for the US-led authorities in Iraq, said an Iraqi judge had issued an arrest warrant for Moqtada al-Sadr several months ago in connection with the killing of another Shi'ite cleric last year.

Sadr, surrounded by armed followers, is staging a sit-in at a mosque in Kufa, south of Baghdad. Asked when he would be arrested, Mr Senor said: "There will be no advance warning."

The announcement was likely to stir fresh fury among Sadr's thousands of supporters who have shown their opposition to America's postwar plans for Iraq in armed demonstrations over the past few days.

"There's no way Sayyid Moqtada will turn himself in," said a Sadr supporter outside the group's office in the Baghdad slum district of Sadr City. "If the Americans try to arrest him, we will all explode," said the man, who gave his name as Haider.

US forces have long struggled to quell Sunni insurgents since the war that toppled Saddam Hussein nearly a year ago, but are now facing a chaotic surge of Shi'ite unrest.

Sadr supporters had lit fires around the office in an attempt to create a smokescreen against US helicopters prowling the skies. About six US tanks were deployed nearby.

A US helicopter earlier machinegunned targets in the capital's mainly Shi'ite district of Shuala. Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, deputy director of operations for the US army in Iraq, said the helicopter was responding to small-arms fire.

US forces also tackled Sunni Muslim insurgents in Falluja, where four American security men were killed last week. Residents reported heavy firing overnight and a hospital doctor said five people had been killed and three wounded.

Troops enforced a night-time curfew and sealed roads around the troubled town west of Baghdad. Schools closed and the streets were empty. The US military said it had also shut the nearby Baghdad-Amman highway indefinitely.

The violence complicates the task of UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, who arrived in Baghdad on Sunday to discuss US plans for an end-June power handover to Iraqis and future elections.

US President George W. Bush said yesterday he would stick to a June 30 deadline for handing power to Iraqis: "We've got to stay the course and we will stay the course," he told reporters.

Sadr commands wide support among the poorest of Iraq's majority Shi'ites, who rally to his anti-US rhetoric and promises of power for a community oppressed by Saddam.

The 30-year-old cleric's own personal militia - the Mehdi Army - is thought to be several thousand-strong.

The warrant links Sadr to the murder of Ayatollah Abdul Majid al-Khoei, hacked to death at a Najaf mosque last April by a mob. Sadr's group has denied involvement in the killing.

Iraq's US administrator Paul Bremer termed Sadr an outlaw yesterday, a day after battles in Baghdad and near Najaf killed 48 Iraqis, eight American soldiers and one Salvadoran soldier.

In other violence, the US army reported two Marines and two soldiers killed in attacks in Iraq on Sunday and yesterday, bringing the US death toll to 12 in the past 24 hours.

Since the start of the war, 422 US soldiers have been killed in action. Thousands of Iraqis have been killed.

Mr Bremer, who according to US Senate aides has cancelled a trip to Washington this week, said Sadr was trying to usurp legitimate authority. "We will not tolerate this," he declared.