BAGHDAD, August 6 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - US occupation forces killed 400 Iraqis and detained 1,000 others after fierce clashes in An-Najaf over the past two days, the holy city’s governor Adnan Al-Zorfi said Friday, August 6.

The US military, meanwhile, admitted it has killed 300 people over the past two days of clashes with Shiite leader Moqtada Al-Sadr’s loyalists in An-Najaf, in which the occupation forces used warplanes in pounding the city.

Three US service members have also been killed in the skirmishes, the American-funded Voice of America said on its website.

The clashes also continued in several other cities, including the Sadr City neighborhood of Baghdad.

This came as chaos and insecurity hit a new low in Iraq, with unrest fanning out across Shiite central and southern Iraq and clashes extending to engage British troops in Basra, Italian troops in Nasiriyah and US troops in Shiite areas of Baghdad.

US planes pounded An-Najaf, where intense clashes were reported between US forces and Shiite Muslim fighters in the worst fighting since a truce was agreed in June, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

Columns of thick black smoke could be seen rising up from the city, as residents stayed at home with their doors bolted and fighters loyal to Sadr - a firebrand known for his calls for an end to occupation of the oil-rich country - prowled the streets.

US planes fired rockets over the city and its cemetery, with the aerial bombardment continuing as US tanks were seen moving from the 1920 Revolution Square to Al-Midan Square.

Explosions and gunfire crackled across An-Najaf , with no letup for the Muslim day of rest after dozens of US tanks and armoured vehicles drove into the holy city.

One ambulance was set alight and burnt out civilian cars littered the deserted streets, as sporadic gunfire rattled out across An-Najaf, an AFP correspondent said.

Italian troops are based on one side of the Euphrates river, with militiamen loyal to Sadr deployed on the other.

On Saturday, August 1, US-led forces detained Sheikh Mithal Al-Hasnawi, Sadr's representative in Karbala, another Shiite holy city south of Baghdad.

It was that US arrest of one of Sadr's key deputies that helped trigger the firebrand leader’s first standoff with the US occupation forces in the spring.

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In Baghdad, 15 US soldiers were wounded in attacks Thursday, at least six in the huge Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City, the military said.

Medics reported at least 26 people killed and 90 wounded during the clashes. Sadr aides accused US troops of damaging a minaret of Najaf's holiest shrine, the mausoleum of Imam Ali.

His fighters marched through the streets, calling over loudspeakers for Muslims to "take up arms to defend your holy places against the occupiers".

In Iraq's main southern city of Basra, Sadr representative Sheikh Saad Al-Basri, who declared war on British troops Thursday, August 5, said five people had been killed and three wounded in two separate skirmishes there.

A spokeswoman said British commanders would continue to negotiate with local leaders in a bid to calm the situation, but the province's deputy governor ruled out any question of talks.

"We refuse any negotiations with the occupation forces," said Salem Audeh.

In Amara, five civilians were wounded when mortar rounds struck in the center of the city, said a hospital doctor.

US tanks roll past a picture of leading Shiite Muslim figures in Baghdad's predominantly Shiite Sadr City neighborhood (AFP)

Clashes also broke out in Sunni areas, when US forces used airpower in clashes in the Sunni Muslim city of Samarra, north of Baghdad.

Two civilians were killed and 13 wounded, medics said Friday. Three children were among the wounded, said a doctor at the city's main hospital.

Fighting began late Thursday near a bridge over the Tigris, said police colonel Abdel Haq Ismail. An AFP correspondent said US planes fired 11 rockets in the area.

The US military said troops had killed three fighters and detained nine others in a series of overnight raids, much infuriating to the local inhabitants.

"Operation Cajun Mousetrap II" was based on "precise intelligence" and was an "uncompromising effort to kill or capture anti-Iraqi forces," a statement said.

Samarra is home to one of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines but is predominantly Sunni and has long been a bastion of resistance to the US-led occupation forces.

Much to the fury of Iraqis seeking an end to occupation of Iraq, the United States airlifted hundreds more troops to their oil-rich country.

Hundreds of US soldiers left for Kuwait, US military authorities said, one day after an American US military spokesman in Baghdad admitted that an American marine helicopter was shot down near An-Najaf.

Washington said the pullout will help reinforce its hard-pressed military in Iraq.

The statement was followed by Sadr’s calls on the Iraqis to step up resistance since the US-led occupation has not ended yet.