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To: T L Comiskey who wrote (30257)	10/18/2003 10:01:09 AM
From: Rick Faurot	Respond to of 89467

U.S. Forces Surround Office of Iraq Shi'ite Cleric Sat October 18, 2003 08:21 AM ET KERBALA, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. troops on Saturday sealed off roads around the office and house of an Iraqi Shi'ite Muslim cleric whose followers the U.S. military has blamed for starting a shootout which killed three American soldiers. Soldiers surrounded the buildings in Iraq's holy Shi'ite city of Kerbala 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. The U.S. military said the shootout was started by 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 shooting in which local people said eight of his followers had been killed. 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. U.S. forces backed by helicopters imposed a curfew in the Sunni town of Khaldiya west of Baghdad early on Saturday, stopping people from walking on the streets and shopkeepers from opening their stores, witnesses said. Soldiers sealed off the town and prevented journalists from entering. Witnesses from the town told Reuters residents had become angry after male U.S. soldiers had searched a woman, and the curfew appeared aimed at preventing disturbances.