U.S. forces battle cleric's militia in several Iraqi cities

KARBALA, Iraq — American planes and tanks battered militia positions early Friday near two shrines in the holy city of Karbala, killing 18 fighters loyal to a rebel cleric, the U.S. military said. Near Baghdad, 450 Iraqis were released from the Abu Ghraib jail at the center of the prisoner abuse scandal.

Four people were detained in the killing of American Nicholas Berg, whose decapitation was captured on videotape, but two had been released, Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said Friday. An Iraqi security official said the group that killed the Pennsylvania man was led by a relative of Saddam Hussein.

The detained suspects were former members of Saddam Hussein's Fedayeen paramilitary organization, the Iraqi security official said on condition of anonymity. Iraqi police arrested them on May 14 in a house in Salaheddin province, north of Baghdad. The province includes Tikrit, Saddam's hometown.

Separately, Associated Press Television News footage showed the aftermath of a U.S. attack that survivors said hit a wedding party, killing up to 45 people on Thursday.

It showed pieces of rockets, pots and pans, destroyed musical instruments, pillows, mattresses and blankets scattered at the devastated site. Tufts of hair and bits of what appeared to be human flesh lay in a shallow ditch. An arm lay in the rubble. A crowd of young men stand around a huge blood stain on the ground.

The United States has insisted the target was a safehouse for infiltrators slipping across the border to fight coalition soldiers in Iraq. In Baghdad, Kimmitt repeated that claim Thursday, but said the U.S. military would investigate after Iraqi officials reported the survivors' story.

U.S. forces withdrew from the Mukhayam mosque in the center of Karbala, the scene of fierce fighting last week during which coalition forces ousted insurgents who were using it as a base of operations. But they said patrols in the city would continue.

Two Iranian pilgrims and a driver for Al-Jazeera television also were killed in the fighting, according to hospital officials and Al-Jazeera.

Fighting between American forces and anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's militia also was heavy in Najaf and neighboring Kufa, south of Baghdad. Explosions rocked the center of Najaf, near local government buildings, and Friday prayers were canceled because of the violence. A huge fire raged in a vegetable market.

One civilian died and another was injured in Najaf when their car was caught in fighting, hospital officials said. At least 14 people were injured.