U.S. troops in Najaf come under mortar fire; U.S. likely to replace new Fallujah commander

The shelling began overnight, when some 20 mortars hit in and around the former Spanish base that U.S. troops moved into a week ago. There were no casualties.

Heavy mortar fire resumed at midday Monday, and U.S. troops returned fire. Tanks were moved up, swiveling their cannons - though they did not fire - and Apache helicopters circled overhead. Sniper fire could also be heard until the clashes eased several hours later.



The U.S. military has deployed at the base and outside Najaf to crack down on radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. But they have been hampered in responding to frequent al-Sadr fire on their position because the military is being extremely cautious, fearing that stepped up fighting would anger Shiites, whose holiest shrine is at the center of the city, about three miles from the U.S. base.

Lt. Col. Pat White, commander of the troops, called the firefight Monday "pretty intense," but said his forces would not move against the militiamen for the time being. "We can probably maintain this kind of defense until my higher command allows me to maneuver in the city," White told CNN.

Violence on Sunday killed nine U.S. soldiers across the country. In the heaviest attack, five Navy sailors and one Army soldier were killed in a mortar barrage against a base near Ramadi, west of Baghdad.

Meanwhile, Thomas Hamill, a truck driver from Mississippi who escaped from his Iraqi kidnappers after three weeks in captivity, flew to Germany on Monday for a reunion with his wife.

Hamill pried open a door in the house where he was being held north of Baghdad when he heard a U.S. patrol passing by Sunday, then led the troops to the house where two Iraqis were captured.

In Fallujah, the U.S. military will likely bring in a new commander for the new Iraqi brigade replacing U.S. Marines withdrawing from around the city, an official said Monday - amid uncertainty over the identities of the Saddam Hussein-era generals to whom the United States has handed over control of the guerrilla stronghold.

The Fallujah Brigade, made up of former soldiers from Saddam's army, took up further positions in the cordon around the city, replacing Marines who were pulling back to form an outer cordon. The Iraqi brigade now controls a ring around the southern half of Fallujah and is due to begin patrols inside soon.

Fallujah residents have been celebrating what many consider a victory over U.S. forces, with trucks full of cheering Iraqis driving through the city, waving flags. They also began to survey the damage from the bloody, monthlong siege. On Monday, Iraqi volunteers wearing surgical masks and gloves disinterred bodies that had been buried in houses and backyards for reburial in a football field that has been turned into a graveyard.

Maj. Gen. Mohammed Latif, a former military intelligence officer, is likely to take command of the Fallujah Brigade, a senior U.S. military official said. He would replace Maj. Gen. Jassim Mohammed Saleh, who will likely take a subordinate command in the brigade, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Saleh, a former member of Saddam's Republican Guard, moved into Fallujah on Friday at the head of the new force.

U.S. officials have acknowledged they did not vet the leaders and members of the new brigade to see how close their ties were to Saddam's regime - a sign of the military's eagerness to find an "Iraqi solution" to a monthlong siege that had raised an international outcry and strained ties with U.S.-allied Iraqi leaders.

Latif participated in meetings with Marines last week on the creation of the Fallujah Brigade, the top Marine commander, Lt. Gen. James Conway, said over the weekend. Conway said he believed that Latif had been exiled by Saddam's regime for several years.

"He is very well thought of, very well respected by the Iraqi general officers. You can just see the body language between them. And if I had to guess at this point, when we have this brigade fully formed, he demonstrates a level of leadership that tells me that he could become that brigade commander," Conway said.

U.S. officials have shown confusion over the identities of the generals in the Fallujah force. One U.S. officer said Saleh had been involved in an assassination plot against Saddam and that three of his children had been executed - apparently mistaking him for Mohammed al-Shehwani, a former Air Force officer who in April was named as head of the Iraqi National Intelligence Service and whose three sons were killed by Saddam.

Hoshyar Zibari, Iraq's Kurdish foreign minister, said there were reports Saleh was involved in crushing the uprising against Saddam's rule following the 1991 Gulf War. Latif does "not have such problems" and at one point was imprisoned by Saddam, Zibari told reporters.

U.S. officials say the Fallujah Brigade will crack down on hard-core guerrillas in the city - though the force itself will likely include some of the gunmen who last month were involved in fighting against the Marines. U.S. commanders say the insurgent movement in Fallujah has been led by foreign Arab militants and former figures from Saddam's regime.

Saleh on Sunday told the Arab television station Al-Arabiya that he did not believe there were any foreign fighters in the city.

Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Sunday that the U.S. military is still seeking the same objectives in Fallujah: "Deal with the extremists, the foreign fighters," rid the city of heavy weapons and find those behind the March 31 killing and mutilation of four American civilian security workers.

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