The damage, however slight, marked a moment that the American military has been straining to avoid in its five-week standoff with Mr. Sadr: any violation of the holy sites of Najaf and Karbala, held sacred by Shiites around the world, that could inflame Shiites here into a broader uprising against American forces.
But many moderate Shiites have called for Mr. Sadr and his militia to leave Najaf, and there were no signs of wider unrest on Friday. Despite the damage, the United States military said it was taking extraordinary pains to convince Shiites that it was doing everything to keep the violence away from the shrines.
“It’s important to understand that we have not attacked the Shrine of Imam Ali,” Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the chief spokesman for the American military, told reporters. “We continue to respect the red lines that have been established by the religious clerics.”
**Mr. Sadr’s supporters blamed Americans for the damage, but General Kimmitt presented a large satellite map showing where the fighting took place, perhaps a quarter mile northwest of the shrine. American forces, he said, had only fired northward, away from the shrine. **
“Go ask Moktada who put that hole in the shrine,” General Kimmitt said. "I suspect he will tell you that it was coalition forces. But I suspect if you look very carefully, the coalition does not yet have ammunition that can shoot to the north and then turn around and head south
Still, the fighting on Friday appeared to move the confrontation with Mr. Sadr to a more sensitive stage, not only in Najaf but in Karbala, to the north. In both cities, military officials say, Mr. Sadr’s forces have been firing from near holy sites in what appears to be a strategy of drawing American troops into fighting on ground that poses grave political consequences.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/15/international/middleeast/15IRAQ.html