From the story:
The violence started after Iraqi soldiers raided the office of cleric Mahmoud al-Hassani before dawn, apparently because his supporters had taken over a field behind the building for security reasons, said Ahmed al-Ghazali, an aide to the cleric.
Here's some background:
Four U.S. Soldiers Killed in Iraq ClashesBy HAMZA HENDAWI, Associated Press Writer
Oct 17, 2003
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20031017/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq KARBALA, Iraq - A joint U.S.-Iraqi patrol enforcing a curfew clashed with gunmen guarding the headquarters of a Shiite cleric, setting off a firefight that killed three Americans and 10 Iraqis, including two security officers, the U.S. Central Command and witnesses said Friday. In Baghdad, an American soldier from the 220th Military Police Brigade was killed and two were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded Friday morning.
The Americans involved in the firefight at the cleric's headquarters in this southern city were members of the 101st Airborne Division, said Maj. Mike Escudie of Central Command in Tampa, Fla. Seven Americans also were wounded in the clash, Central Command said.
U.S. combat deaths since major fighting ended May 1 passed the 100 mark after Friday's clash and now stand at 101.
Five Iraqi security personnel also were wounded in the attack near Imam Abbas Mosque in Karbala, 50 miles south of Baghdad.
The fighting began when coalition military police and Iraqi authorities investigated reports of armed men congregating on a road near the Imam Abbas mosque after a 9 p.m. curfew, Central Command said.
Malik Kazim, a gunman who said he participated in the battle, said the fighting involved armored vehicles and Humvees that passed the offices of a senior Shiite cleric,
Mahmoud al-Hassani. The offices were guarded by at least 20 gunmen.
Karbala has been under curfew since Tuesday, and the U.S.-Iraqi patrol ordered the gunmen to go inside. When they refused, a shootout ensued, he said.
Intense gunfire — small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades — lasted about a half-hour as the U.S.-Iraqi patrol tried to "kill our master," Kazim said.
A man identifying himself as Abu Ali, an aide to al-Hassani, said the Americans started shooting "without any provocation or warning." Eight Iraqi guards were killed, he said.
Al-Hassani, who moved to Karbala from Baghdad after the fall of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s regime in April, went to a secret location with his family Friday morning, Abu Ali said. An al-Hassani flier at the scene of the shootout denounced Iraqis cooperating with the Americans as "traitors."
Abu Ali said guards had been posted around al-Hassani's house since late August, when a car bomb in nearby Najaf killed a leading Shiite cleric and more than 80 other people.
Initial reports said the joint patrol was made up of Americans and Poles. But military officials said later no Poles were involved.
On Friday morning, large pools of blood were seen on the street and dozens of bullet holes, some large-caliber, were seen in the walls.
Al-Hassani is one of Karbala's lesser-known ayatollahs — the highest clerical rank in Shiism. Rivalries among Shiite factions have led to sporadic violence recently, as Shiites suppressed under Saddam flex their new political muscle as a majority in Iraq (news - web sites).
Two Pentagon (news - web sites) officials said Friday the military was investigating whether the shootout was an ambush by the Shiite militia. The U.S.-led authorities in Iraq have banned private militias and say they are committed to disarming them while trying to minimize violence.
Gunfire erupted again Friday morning in the same area of Karbala, where Thursday's late-night encounter may have signaled a new determination by the Americans to disarm religious-based militias and enforce curfews. Sporadic clashes continued for about 12 hours after the initial battle.
An armored personnel carrier of the U.S.-led coalition opened fire Friday morning as screaming men, women and children fled for cover. Shiite gunmen defiantly shouted, "Allahu Akbar!" — "God is great!" The gunfire soon ended, but young Shiites still manned rooftop and street positions with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades.
The gunmen abandoned their positions several hours later, but several Polish jeeps and armored cars remained stationed less than 200 yards from the cleric's house. At least two Polish snipers could be seen on nearby rooftops.
Polish soldiers maintain responsibility for Karbala, but Polish officials said those troops were not involved in Thursday's clash.
In Baghdad's Sadr City district, a stronghold for Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, about 6,000 Shiites chanted "No No U.S.A., Yes Yes Muqtada" at Friday prayers.
Hundreds of yards away, U.S. tanks, armored personnel carriers and dozens of soldiers blocked off streets leading to a building housing the Sadr City council.
Al-Sadr is a 30-year-old cleric who has been exhorting followers with fiery anti-American sermons but has stopped short of directly calling for attacks on U.S. military forces.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said in comments published Friday that al-Sadr's militia will be disarmed by force if necessary. Zebari's comments were published in the London-based Arabic daily newspaper Al Hayat.
Polish forces lead an international brigade responsible for postwar security in the Karbala area, commanding some 9,500 peacekeepers from 21 nations, including 2,400 Poles. The 31,000-square-mile area was handed over by American forces last month.
On Thursday, the U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a resolution aimed at attracting more troops and money to help stabilize Iraq and speed its independence.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IraqFrontNews/message/163 Oct 18, 2003
KERBALA, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. troops sealed off roads around the house of an Iraqi Shi'ite Muslim cleric on Saturday and another sheikh warned the crackdown on radicals would only backfire.
Soldiers surrounded the buildings used by local cleric Sayyid Mahmoud al-Hassani with armored vehicles and helicopters circled overhead.
Three U.S. military police and two Iraqi police were killed on Thursday night in fighting in the city which U.S. forces blamed on supporters of Hassani, himself a sympathizer of radical Shi'ite leader Moqtada al-Sadr who opposes the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq.
U.S. officers would not comment on whether they were hoping to arrest Hassani. His supporters said he had left his home after Thursday's shootout in which local people said eight of his followers had been killed.
After arresting one of his followers, American soldiers surrounded Hassani's office building, witnesses said.
The moves suggested American troops are taking a harder line against radical clerics backed by militiamen armed with AK-47 assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades who are fiercely opposed to the occupation.
Sheikh Kathim al-Nasseri, Sadr's representative in Kerbala, said U.S. troops made a serious mistake spilling Muslim blood and pressuring Shi'ite clerics.
"The result will be very bad for the Americans. If they increase the pressure there will be a crisis between the people of Kerbala and the Americans," he told Reuters.
He warned occupation forces that if they do any harm to Shi'ite shrines in the holy cities of Kerbala or Najaf "they will face not only Shi'ites in Iraq but Shi'ites all over the world."
Shi'ites are in the majority in Iraq and were repressed by Saddam Hussein, a Sunni. Moderate Shi'ite leaders have advocated cautious cooperation with Iraq's occupying forces in the hope of securing power in a future government.
Most attacks on U.S. forces have occurred in the so-called "Sunni Triangle" north and west of Baghdad, but Thursday's attack in the Shi'ite city 90 kms (55 miles) south of the capital showed increasing anti-American sentiment among the young followers of radical Shi'ite clerics.
Among the American dead in Kerbala was a lieutenant-colonel, one of the most high-ranking soldiers to be killed by guerrillas in Iraq since Saddam Hussein was toppled in April.
"(Hassani) is very popular in Kerbala," said teenager Raed Kerba'i, in a crowd gathered around the U.S. roadblocks. "The Americans just want to take over and we won't let them."
Officials in the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) ruling Iraq believe Hassani has 60 to 100 followers in Kerbala.
"He is a mixture of a criminal and a lunatic who believes he has a hotline to God... He had set up checkpoints in Kerbala to fleece money out of people. At one point his guys went to the governorate building with machetes and two were shot," a CPA official said.
U.S. military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel George Krivo said there was no evidence to suggest Sadr, who has a huge following in Iraq, was directly involved in the shootout that killed the American troops.
Blood still stained the Hassani home after Thursday's shootout and angry residents said the killing of his followers and the U.S. crackdown would only fuel anti-American sentiment and play into the hands of radicals. top
(Additional reporting by Alistair Lyon in Baghdad)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IraqFrontNews/message/164Oct 19, 2003
...Al-Hassani, a university-trained civil engineer, moved here after the collapse of Saddam's regime and attracted hundreds of followers who gathered outside his house every week to see his counsel.
Ali Mohsen, 28, a seminary student and a neighbor, said al-Hassani studied at the holy city of Najaf under Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr, the late father of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Posters of the elder al-Sadr and al-Hassani himself were removed Sunday from the wall of the house, whose small metal door was blocked by old furniture.
On Sunday, a coalition official said 40 people were arrested in Karbala after the clashes. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said 13 of them have already been released.
The cleric al-Hassani, believed to be in his late 30's, went into hiding with his wife and three children soon after the deadly clash.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IraqFrontNews/message/166
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