AN-NAJAF, Iraq, May 25 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – A mortar shell hit Tuesday, May 25, Imam Ali mausoleum, Shiite Islam's holiest shrine, in An-Najaf as fresh fighting in the holy city killed seven and wounded 45.

The U.S. occupation forces and fighters of Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr traded accusations over damage to the shrine, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The mortar round exploded injured 10 people and damaged the upper part of one of the main gold-covered gates leading to the tomb of the revered imam.

Rubble was strewn all over the blood-stained floor of the shrine as a voice over the shrine's loudspeakers condemned the attack.

Al-Jazeera TV showed damage to the inner gate of the shrine leading to the tomb and a torn veil covering the entrance to the tomb.

A spokesman for Sadr said it was U.S. troops that fired an Iraqi-made mortar on the shrine.

"As you know U.S. forces put their hands on weapons that belonged to the former Iraqi army, so it could have been a mortar from this arsenal that was fired at the shrine," said Sheikh Qais al-Khazali.

He dismissed accusations that members Sadr's Mehdi army may have been responsible for the attack.

"It is impossible for Shiites to do this," said Khazali. "We control the shrine area. How can we fire a mortar on ourselves?"

He vowed that Sadr and his men will continue "resisting U.S. occupation forces until the last drop of blood in their veins, and we will never disgrace ourselves by surrendering." 

Denial

An Iraqi scholar walks past the damage to a doorway of Imam Ali shrine

"The coalition forces had no involvement in the damage to the Imam Ali mosque," Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, the U.S. military spokesman, told reporters in Baghdad .

"We have heard different reports of what caused it -- whether it was fighting between two different factions inside the city or whether it was ... Moqtada's militia firing from the cemetery onto the area of the mosque to try to provoke outrage so they can blame it on coalition forces."

The city's vast cemetery is adjacent to the shrine and black-clad militiamen have been known to use it as launching pad for attacks on US troops.

Kimmitt said U.S. troops "will not be provoked into an incident near those shrines."

Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, a Shiite member of the U.S.-appointed Governing Council, said "occupation forces bear a special responsibility to calm the situation and respect the sanctity of An-Najaf's holy shrine."

Since early April the Imam Ali mausoleum and the area immediately around it have been under the control of Sadr and his.

The golden dome of the shrine was slightly damaged in fighting almost two weeks ago.

Seven Killed

Meanwhile, An-Najaf's Hakim hospital said seven Iraqis were killed and 45 wounded, including the 10 injured in the shrine, in Tuesday's fighting.

Calm returned to the holy city by early afternoon, following fierce clashes one kilometer (less than a mile) north of the shrine.

For more than a month, An-Najaf has been the scene of almost daily clashes between some 2,500 U.S. troops and Sadr's supporters.

Five Iraqis were killed and 18 wounded in overnight fighting in nearby Kufa, after 32 people died in clashes there early Sunday, 20 of them in a U.S. raid on a mosque in the town.