34 Iraqis killed in U.S. assault

NAJAF, Iraq — U.S. forces stepped up pressure on Shiite gunmen loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, pushing with tanks into the holy city of Kufa and assaulting militia positions in the narrow streets of a Shiite enclave in Baghdad. At least 34 Iraqis were killed.

The U.S. military also said a 24-year-old military policeman will be the first soldier to face a court-martial in the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison (Story on A1).

Spc. Jeremy C. Sivits, a member of the 372nd Military Police Company, has been charged with conspiracy to maltreat subordinates and detainees, dereliction of duty for negligently failing to protect detainees from abuse and cruelty and maltreatment of detainees, Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said.

The court-martial will be held May 19 in Baghdad, and Kimmitt said it will be open to the media. If convicted, Sivits faces one year in prison, demotion or a discharge for bad conduct, military officials said.

The rest of the seven soldiers charged in the abuse likely will face trials where they could get more severe punishments — suggesting the military was starting the courts-martial with one of the lesser figures in the scandal.

The heaviest fighting in Baghdad came when militiamen from al-Sadr's Al-Mahdi Army attacked police stations and set up checkpoints in the Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City, a heavily populated district in the eastern part of the capital, Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said.

U.S. troops moved in and secured two police stations in fighting that killed 18 militiamen, Kimmitt said.

Earlier, an explosion tore apart shops in a market in the western Biyaa district. The blast occurred when police tried to dismantle two bombs found in vendors' stalls, witnesses said. Four people were killed and 17 were wounded, the Health Ministry said. Kimmitt said three people were killed.

"Is this the freedom that they want — people cut into pieces?," one man at the market, Fadhil Farid, cried. "What did we do wrong?"

At about the same time, gunmen opened fire on a U.S. patrol in western Baghdad, sparking a firefight that killed three Iraqi policemen, two civilians and one of the attackers, Kimmitt said. Fighters attacked another patrol in the center of the capital, wounding two Iraqi policemen.