  NAJAF, Iraq - U.S. helicopter gunships and fighter jets pounded Shiite Muslim insurgents hiding in a sprawling cemetery Friday in the most intense fighting in this holy city since the fall of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites). The U.S. military said 300 militants were killed in the past two days. The clashes between coalition forces and militant Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army flared in Shiite communities across the country, killing dozens of other Iraqis, according to Iraqi officials and the militants. The fighting, which began early Thursday, threatened to re-ignite the bloody, two-month Shiite insurrection that broke out in April — and the heavy U.S. response appeared designed to quash militia activity quickly and prevent a repeat.
Al-Sadr on Friday blamed all the violence in Iraq (news - web sites) on the United States, which he called "our enemy and the enemy of the people," in a sermon read on his behalf at the Kufa Mosque near Najaf. -- Time to set up Martial Law and take these guys out once and for all. Just take them out of the equation. Andrew B. 
