US tanks enter Karbala

The sudden appearance by the some 15 tanks in the area near the Imam Abbas and Imam Hussein shrines of occupied by militiamen loyal to radical cleric Moqtada Sadr provoked hysteria among hundreds of people preparing for an anti-US demonstration.

"Long live Sadr, the Americans are an army of infidels," the unarmed crowd shouted before trying to swarm around the tanks which quickly left the area.

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Gunfire was heard earlier in the area where some 500 people had gathered after being called out for a peaceful demonstration against the occupation by Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Modarassi.

AP adds: Gunmen fired on a minibus in Baghdad yesterday, killing two Iraqi women who were working for the US-led coalition, and assailants in a southern city killed a coalition translator and critically injured another in attacks on their houses, police and witnesses said.

Assailants in Basra fired a mortar shell that landed on a house near a British military base, killing four Iraqi civilians, including 2-year-old twin girls, witnesses said. Four people were injured. All the victims were from the same family. Moreover, two militiamen loyal to radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr were killed Sunday while attacking a US convoy in Najaf, a US officer said.

The attack took place at about 6:30 am (0230 GMT) when a US convoy was traveling on a back street between Iraqi police headquarters off the 1920 Revolution Square and the governor's office further north, Captain Brandon Anderson told AFP.