US tanks, ground troops and aircraft launched a major offensive against Iraqi Shi'ite militia today, killing about 20 in one raid on a mosque and pounding other positions around the holy city of Najaf.
The fiercest fighting in the area for weeks killed at least 34 people and wounded dozens, including civilians, overnight. The fighting seemed a definitive answer to a tentative truce offer made by an aide to the cleric leading the Mehdi Army, Moqtada al-Sadr.
Pools of blood lay inside the green-domed Sahla mosque, one of three main shrines in Kufa just outside Najaf, and spent cartridges littered the courtyard.
A tank had smashed down the door of the building, where US troops said they found weapons.
US commanders say they are trying to avoid inflaming religious passions but will attack mosques used in combat.
Sadr, a young firebrand preacher from a respected clerical dynasty, has irritated much of the Shi'ite establishment with his use of holy places in his revolt. Some Shi'ite leaders have also demanded the Americans show restraint in the shrine cities.