Iraq on the brink

Iraq teetered on the brink of anarchy today as a wave of violence spread throughout the country.

Coalition forces now find themselves embattled on two fronts - by minority Sunni Muslims and by the majority Shi'ite population, urged on by a radical cleric branded an outlaw today by the coalition authority.

Shia supporters of Moqtada al-Sadr have now launched a series of attacks on the US-led coalition - including protests in Amarah in which British troops came under fire, and a sit-in by armed men at the governor's headquarters in Britishcontrolled Basra.

But the worst clashes today came in Baghdad, where Apache helicopter gunships fired at militant supporters of the cleric rioting in the north-west suburb of Shuala.

They came after the death toll from a weekend of bloodshed continued to rise, with some estimates putting it as high as 55 after clashes in Najaf, Nasiriyah and Fallujah as well as Baghdad. No British troops were injured in Amarah.

Al-Sadr, who has mobilised thousands of Shia for the first time, now represents the biggest single challenge to the shaky authority of US administrator Paul Bremer.

In a bid to avert all-out civil war, Mr Bremer held crisis talks today with the Iraqi ministers who are supposed to take over running the country at the end of June.

He told them the young Shi'ite cleric was an outlaw trying to usurp legitimate authority, adding: "We will not tolerate this. We will reassert the law and order which the Iraqi people expect."

But Mr Bremer is seen in some quarters as largely to blame for the lurch into anarchy. It was his decision to close down Al-Sadr's newspaper-which prompted the call from the cleric - whose father was an outspoken critic of Saddam Hussein - to bring "terror" to the US-led coalition.

Al-Sadr then called on followers to "do what you see fit in your provinces". He urged them to "strike terror in the heart of your enemy ... we can no longer be silent in the face of their abuses."

This statement unleashed a torrent of violence and protests including today's storming in Basra - at dawn, by up to 150 gunmen - of governor Abdel-Latif Wael's offices.

British troops stayed back from the compound to let Iraqi officials negotiate with the men, who took to the roof chanting: "No to America! We will sacrifice ourselves to Sadr."

There were also protests today in Kerbala, one of Iraq's key Shia sites, by followers of Al-Sadr's Mehdi Army, which says it is ready for "holy war" against the Americans.

The cleric was propelled into action after the arrest of one of his aides, Mustapha Yacoubi, who was seized by US-led forces on Saturday in connection with the killing of Shi'ite cleric Abdul Majid al-Khoei last year. Al-Sadr's group denies any involvement.

Meanwhile, heavy firing was heard overnight after US forces sealed off the Sunni town of Fallujah, where four American security guards were killed and their bodies burned and mutilated last week.

In west Baghdad, insurgents attacked foreigners in a civilian car, detonating a roadside bomb and firing small arms.

The US military death toll today reached 422 since the invasion of Iraq when a soldier wounded in Baghdad died. He was the eighth to die after clashes in the Shi'ite suburb of Sadr City yesterday. The Iraqi death toll there is now well into the twenties and may reach 30.

US authorities said three other troops, two of them Marines, were killed yesterday. The Marines died in "enemy action" in Anbar province, and a roadside bomb killed a soldier in Mosul. A Marine was killed today west of Baghdad, while another soldier died in a bomb blast near Kirkuk.