NAJAF BEGINS CLEAN-UP

[Talon]

NAJAF BEGINS CLEAN-UP

Residents have begun returning to their war ravaged homes in Najaf after a three-week stand-off between Shi'ite militiamen and American forces.

Workers started sweeping up broken glass and rubble from offices and shops devastated by fighting in the southern holy city.

Calm has settled over the city a day after militants loyal to rebel Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al Sadr filed out of the Imam Ali Shrine and turned over the keys to Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric Ayatollah Ali al Sistani under a peace deal negotiated with the interim government.

Under the terms of the deal, al Sadr's militiamen have withdrawn from the shrine and US tanks have pulled back to the outskirts of the city.

But the violence is continuing elsewhere in Iraq.

Gunmen travelling in two minibuses opened fire on a checkpoint in the restive city of Baquba, north of Baghdad, killing six Iraqi policemen.

Eleven others were injured, before the gunmen escaped in minibuses.

In separate violence, Shi'ite militants and US forces battled in the Baghdad slum of Sadr City.

A mortar barrage slammed into a busy eastern Baghdad neighbourhood killing five people and injuring dozens.

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