Kufa is a stronghold of radical cleric Moqtada Sadr

At least 25 people have been killed and dozens injured in a suspected mortar attack on a mosque near the troubled city of Najaf, say hospital officials.

The compound of the mosque in Kufa was packed with people about to go to Najaf where Iraq's top Shia cleric is headed to try to end the conflict there.

Later, gunmen opened fired on marchers going from Kufa to Najaf, reportedly killing at least three.

It is not known who is behind either of the attacks.

Accompanied by thousands of his supporters, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani is going to Najaf to try to end the stand-off involving Shia fighters led by a radical cleric, Moqtada Sadr.

The rebels have been battling US-led forces for three weeks.

Click below for Digital Globe satellite image of Kufa Enlarge Image

The ayatollah, who returned to Iraq on Wednesday after medical treatment in the UK, is expected to announce an initiative to resolve the crisis as Moqtada Sadr's men are holed up in the compound of the Imam Ali mosque, Shia Islam's holiest shrine.

"I have come for the sake of Najaf and I will stay in Najaf until the crisis ends," Ayatollah Sistani said on Wednesday.

An aide travelling with the ayatollah told Reuters news agency he was continuing to make for Najaf despite the trouble in Kufa.

Ayatollah Sistani was instrumental in brokering an earlier ceasefire between Mr Sadr's fighters and US-led forces in the city.

Angry crowds

Hussam al-Husseini, an aide to rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, told the Associated Press news agency that one mortar shell hit the mosque itself in Kufa, and two others landed near the gates of the compound.

This is a criminal act. We just wanted to launch a peaceful demonstration Witness Hani Hashem

He said another mosque in the city had also been hit by mortar rounds.

It is not clear who might have been responsible for the attack.

US-led forces said they have not carried out any operations in Kufa for 24 hours, CNN television reported.

TV pictures showed dozens of wounded men lying on the ground amid pools of blood or being ferried to Kufa's hospital.

Crowds of angry people are reported to have built up around the gates of the hospital where casualties were taken.

Ayatollah Sistani has brokered peace in Najaf before

"We were gathering outside and inside the mosque preparing to head to Najaf when two mortar shells landed, one inside the mosque and the other on the main gate," said one man who was taking an injured friend to the hospital.

"This is a criminal act. We just wanted to launch a peaceful demonstration," Hani Hashem said.

In the other incident, witnesses said a crowd of 2,000-3,000 were forced back from a road-block on the main route to Najaf by heavy gunfire over their heads.

Peace plan

The ayatollah set out from the southern city of Basra early on Thursday to make the journey of 400km (250 miles) to Najaf in a convoy of cars and buses packed with Shia Muslim faithful.

The crowds heading to Najaf include Shia who seek the peaceful solution preferred by their spiritual leader Ayatollah Sistani, as well as supporters of Moqtada Sadr.

The Kufa mosque was regularly used by Moqtada Sadr

The governor of Najaf declared a 24-hour ceasefire from when the ayatollah arrives to allow time for a deal with the militants to be reached.

Aides said the ayatollah's proposals included weapons-free zones in both Najaf and Kufa - a stronghold of Moqtada Sadr - and the replacement of foreign troops by Iraqi police.

Helicopters hovered above the stream of vehicles headed to Najaf, while armed guards in sports utility vehicles protected the ayatollah.

Thousands of Shia supporters greeted al-Sistani's return

As US AC-130s and artillery units continued their sixth day of bombing al-Mahdi Army positions in Najaf, Grand Ayat Allah Ali al-Sistani has issued a call for Iraqis to march to the city to "save it from destruction".

Five explosions were heard early on Thursday morning as artillery fire rained down on al-Mahdi Army holdouts in Najaf.

The artillery fire was followed by what residents said was a warplane attack.

A few hours earlier, two deafening explosions sounded across Najaf late on Wednesday evening, as US warplanes bombed the historic heart of Najaf, witnesses said.

Thick black smoke spewed out into the night sky not far from the revered Imam Ali mausoleum, where supporters of cleric and militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr have been trapped by US occupation forces, an AFP correspondent said.

Witnesses said they saw planes drop two bombs at around 23:15 (19:15 GMT).

Al-Sistani's march

Iranian-born al-Sistani arrived in the southern city of Basra early on Wednesday and called on the march to begin on Thursday.

He is hoping to end the fighting between US forces and followers of his political foe, Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, by breaking up the two sides.

Iranian-born Sistani, who had not left Najaf for years, departed the city two weeks ago to undergo surgery in London, just as fighting flared between al-Sadr's al-Mahdi Army and US occupation forces.

Iraqi sources have criticised the ailing Ayat Allah for not urging action on Najaf sooner.

"The Ayat Allah is trying to set things right. The popular forces in Iraq have been astonished by his silence over the

American use of brute force, although we understand that as a traditional religious elder he prefers subtlety," said Ali al-Lami, a Shia politician.

Demonstrators killed

Earlier on Wednesday, Aljazeera reported that 16 men were killed and 102 others wounded during a peaceful demonstration heading towards Najaf.

Video footage from Associated Press Television News showed demonstrators wounded during a few minutes of heavy gunfire.

The marchers chanted slogans in support of al-Sadr and carried pictures of the cleric as well as pictures of al-Sistani.

No more reports from a burning Najaf by Gulf-based media

(AFP - 25 August) Iraqi policemen rounded up dozens of journalists at gunpoint in a Najaf hotel and took them to police headquarters before later releasing them.

Firing their guns in the air, the dozen odd policemen, some masked, stormed into the rooms of journalists in the Najaf Sea hotel and forced them into vans and a truck.

An AFP correspondent, who was also forced into a van, said the police pushed and pulled many reporters at gunpoint.

After a two-minute drive from the hotel, where journalists from across the world are based while covering the battle between al-Mahdi Army militiamen and US occupation forces city, the reporters were taken to the office of the police chief.

"You people are not under arrest," Najaf police chief Ghalib al-Jezari told them.

"You are brought here because I want to tell you that you never publish the truth. I speak the truth, but you never broadcast what we are."

The reporters, packed into the office, with some sitting on the floor in front of the police chief, protested at their detention.

"You have kidnapped us at gunpoint," said one reporter.

The police chief complained that reporters have been misreporting the proposed visit to Najaf by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the revered Iraqi Shiite Muslim leader.

Arab media detained

Iran expects release

The arrests came as Iran's IRNA new agency announced it hopes to see two or three of its journalists released after their detention in Iraq on 9 August.

A source close to Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi was quoted as saying two of the three IRNA journalists would be released, but did not say which ones.

IRNA's Baghdad bureau chief Mustafa Darban, and colleagues Muhammad Khafaji and Muhsin Madani went initially feared kidnapped before Tehran announced all three had been arrested by Iraqi police. Wednesday 25 August 2004 7:37 PM GMT