U.S. forces searched the house thoroughly

NAJAF, Iraq, July 25 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – U.S. forces circled and destroyed a house in an Iraqi town, thinking Saddam Hussein was hiding therein, as tens of thousands of Shiite Muslims converged on a mosque in the Iraqi holy city of Najaf Friday, July 25, to hear firebrand Imam Moqtada Sadr demand U.S. forces leave the city and abolish the Governing Council it named.

At dawn Friday, some 50 U.S. tanks and armored vehicles surrounded a neighborhood  in the restive town of Fallujah, believing that ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was hiding at a house therein despite the house owner' assertions that it was not true, according to Qatar-based Al-Jazeera Satellite Channel.

"They (U.S. forces) then started firing in a random manner before approaching my house, searching it thoroughly. When they found nothing, they brought it down," Al-Jazeera quoted the house owner as saying.

The impact of firing and shells extended to other neighboring houses and parked cars, causing much damage before the occupation forces left the area.

They then brought it down

Meanwhile, Sadr, the upstart son of a revered Shiite scholar, told masses of followers after prayers at the city's main mosque: "We criticize the occupation force for laying siege to the city of Najaf. This is a terrorist act, and we demand that U.S. forces leave Najaf," reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"You should dissolve this Governing Council and end the occupation," he told the crowd, referring to the 25-member U.S.-appointed Iraqi body responsible for a transition to an independent government.

"Your presence here is the best support and the best way to fight the occupation and the siege of the city," Sadr told Iraqis.

Hundreds of trucks and buses had transported the faithful to Najaf, 180 kilometers (110 miles) south of Baghdad, from the capital and 18 other provinces to hear Sadr's weekly sermon.

Thousands packed into the mosque and the surrounding streets, organized in a disciplined manner and refraining from the heavily anti-American chanting that punctuated last week's gathering.

Sadr, scion of an illustrious family of ayatollahs who resisted Saddam Hussein's rule, electrified Najaf last week with a fiery speech blasting the U.S. occupation.

"This is a terrorist act, and we demand that U.S. forces leave Najaf," Sadr

His challenge to the delicate balance of power led to a tense standoff between the U.S. military and the imam and his followers, who are part of the 15-million Shiite majority who - until now - have reportedly welcomed U.S. intervention in Iraq.

The influential scholar said U.S. troops besieged his home last Saturday, a claim hotly denied by U.S. commanders in the region.

On Friday he reiterated his call to establish his private militia, called the "Mehdi Army", for which recruitment began last Saturday in the Baghdad Shiite suburb of Sadr City.

"The Mehdi Army is the army of Iraq. This army will protect Iraq," Sadr said.

"I am pleased by your actions against the United States, to prove that you are protecting your religion and the Hawza (the supreme Shiite authority in Iraq based in Najaf) and your belief in God."

He also charged that Americans had repeatedly "crossed the line" in Najaf by searching religious schools and arresting religious figures.

Sadr has emerged as a prominent figure in post-war Iraq, but he is still ranked by many in his hometown as a young upstart who has not entered the hallowed ground of a scholar like Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the preeminent Shiite thinker in Iraq.