Iraqi security forces clash with militants in Najaf

NAJAF, Iraq, Jan 28 (Reuters) Iraqi security forces were fighting a group of Sunni insurgents holed up in orchards in the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf today, the provincial governor said, but details of the incident were sketchy.

Police in Najaf, seat of Iraq's most powerful Shi'ite clerics, refused comment and the US military said they did not comment on ongoing operations.

A Reuters reporter at a checkpoint about 1,500 metres from the fighting said he could hear intense gunfire. He said he had earlier seen two wounded soldiers with a dead comrade in the back of a truck outside an Iraqi military base.

Governor Asaad Abu Gilel told Reuters the authorities had uncovered a plot by fighters to kill some clerics tomorrow, the climax of the Shi'ite mourning ritual of Ashura, a highpoint of the Shi'ite religious calendar.

Abu Gilel said the militants, who included foreign fighters, had arrived in the city disguised as pilgrims in recent days and based themselves in the orchards, which he said had been bought three or four months ago by supporters of Saddam Hussein.

Iraqi forces had now surrounded the orchards and were battling the militants. No US troops were involved in the operation, but US helicopters were providing air support, he said. The US military, whose forces largely withdrew from Najaf province last month, had no immediate comment.

''There is a conspiracy to kill the clergy on the 10th day of Muharram,'' he said, referring to the day of the Muslim calendar tomorrow.

Abu Gilel said there were casualties in the clashes, but he could not say how many. A spokesman for the Najaf governorate, Ahmed Diabil, said five people had been detained.

An Iraqi army officer, who declined to be named, said 25 people had been detained.

Tens of thousands of Shi'ite pilgrims were converging on the Kerbala, 70 km northwest of Najaf, to commemorate the death of Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Mohammad, who was buried there after he and his followers died in the battle.

Iraqi security forces have deployed 11,000 police and soldiers in and around the city to thwart any attacks by Sunni insurgents, who have previously targeted Shi'ite religious ceremonies, a police official said. In March 2004 attacks on Ashura pilgrims in Kerbala and Baghdad killed over 170 people.

REUTERS DKA BD1709