http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/26/international/middleeast/26CND_IRAQ.html
BAGHDAD, Iraq, May 26 ? American troops in Najaf captured a key lieutenant to Moktada al-Sadr, the radical Shiite cleric, during fierce fighting that killed "a very large number" of rebels, an American military spokesman in Iraq said today.
The captured militant, Said Riyad al-Nouri, who is also Mr. Sadr's brother-in-law, was handed over to Iraqi authorities for prosecution in connection with the April 2003 murder of a rival of Mr. Sadr, the spokesman, Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, said. Mr. Sadr has led a movement resisting occupation forces since early April.
The capture came as American troops battled Mr. Sadr's militia in Najaf and the Sadr City neighborhood of Baghdad, where American troops engaged in 21 separate firefights, said General Kimmitt, the chief military spokesman for coalition forces in Iraq.
"A very large number" of Mr. Sadr's rebels were killed in Najaf and Sadr City, the spokesman said. He offered no specific casualty figures, saying only that "less than 100" fighters died. There were no reported deaths among coalition troops in the Najaf and Sadr City fighting.
. An official at Hakim Hospital in Najaf said that as many as 11 people were killed in the city and 36 were injured.
The coalition, General Kimmitt said, was "constantly chipping away" at Mr. Sadr's militia.
In other violence today, two Russian technicians were killed and at least five others were wounded when their convoy was hit by rebel gunfire, news services said.
The technicians were employees of the Russian company Interenergoservis, which said today it would evacuate all its remaining staff from Iraq. The firm's workers have been abducted and killed in previous attacks.
Russian engineers have specialized in maintaining Iraq's fragile electrical system.
In Baqubah, militants driving a black Opel attacked the Al-Khalis chief of police with small-arms fire, killing both the chief and his driver, General Kimmitt said.
In southwest Baghdad, a roadside bomb was detonated, killing three Iraqis and wounding nine, the general said. Two suspects were killed in the explosion and one was wounded, he said, adding that two Iraqi police officers were also wounded in the blast.
The developments came a day after the the Shrine of Imam Ali, one of the holiest sites for Shiite Muslims, suffered minor damage in clashes between American forces and insurgents loyal to Mr. Sadr in Najaf and in the neighboring city of Kufa.
In Baghdad on Tuesday, explosions boombed near downtown in two attacks. In one, a car bomb exploded near a hotel in the Jadhriya neighborhood, wounding at least two people, including a boy of about 12. In the Sadoon neighborhood, an American soldier was wounded at a guard post on top of a police station after insurgents fired four rockets from inside a nearby apartment complex.
The Shrine of Imam Ali is revered by Shiite Muslims, and American soldiers have taken great pains to avoid damaging it for fear of alienating Shiites who might not ordinarily support Mr. Sadr. At least three projectiles struck the shrine's compound on Tuesday, one hitting a gate in an inner courtyard and wounding at least 12 people, amid some of the heaviest fighting in the six-week standoff in Najaf.
The other projectiles, possibly mortar shells, hit a roof on an outlying building and the ground about 10 yards outside the shrine's main wall.
As they did when the shrine's dome was hit by gunfire three weeks ago, Mr. Sadr's supporters and the American military blamed each other for the damage on Tuesday.
Gen. Kimmitt denied on Tuesday that American troops had caused the damage. He said it was unclear whether it had been caused by fighting between rival Shiite factions or whether Mr. Sadr's men had fired on the shrine with the intention of blaming the American military.
The clashes in Najaf and Kufa stood in contrast to the situation in Karbala, to the north, which remained quiet today..
Last month, Mr. Sadr led an anti-American uprising that in recent weeks has spread to nearly every major city in the largely Shiite south. American forces have inflicted heavy casualties on Mr. Sadr's poorly trained and lightly armed followers but have not quieted their threat.
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