U.S. Forces Move Into Stronghold Of Cleric

Footage from inside the mosque showed blood-red marks curving along the white floor, apparently left by the wounded being dragged to cover. Hospital officials said at least 10 Iraqis died as a result of the fighting.

"It was possible to solve it all peacefully, but the other side refuses," said Mohammad Taqi Modarresi, a cleric and an ally of Sadr in Karbala.

The sudden withdrawal over the weekend of Sadr's forces has perplexed some military officers after weeks of deadly street-to-street fighting. The insurgents, numbering in the hundreds, abandoned their refuge near the sacred shrines of Abbas and Hussein in Karbala. The streets remained calm for the second consecutive day after U.S. forces withdrew from a strategic mosque in the city center. In a time-tested guerrilla tactic, Sadr's forces had vanished.

Bulgarian forces, part of the U.S.-led coalition, manning checkpoints near downtown, said stores opened for business as their owners cleaned up debris left from the weeks of clashes. Some schools also reopened.

"The bad guys may have left . . . we don't know," said a U.S. officer, whose troops were returning to Baghdad after reinforcing units on the outskirts of Karbala.

The pullback of troops from Task Force 1-36, a unit of the 1st Armored Division, came after U.S. officials canceled a push into Karbala set for Friday.

"There was no cease-fire, no deal made in Karbala," said Maj. David Gercken, a spokesman for the 1st Armored Division. "We do not and will not make deals with militias or criminals."

Iraqi police began to patrol the market area around the shrines, where some of the heaviest recent fighting took place, U.S. officials said. U.S. patrols, meanwhile, continued to probe Karbala in nighttime operations and fan out into the countryside looking for arms depots. The searches yielded neither guerrilla suspects nor weapons.

Sadr loyalists warned their U.S. adversaries of the danger of pursuing their leader into Najaf and Karbala and appealed to Shiites to defend the cities.

"The holy cities are of great concern to Shiites and Muslims," said Modarresi, the cleric. He said Sadr was looking for a way to peacefully exit the crisis without surrendering.

Karbala residents, however, seemed eager for Sadr to give up now that U.S. troops had left the city center. Like Najaf, the town depends on religious pilgrims, including many Shiites from Iran, as a major source of income.

"We don't want the Americans here, and they are in their base. It is time also for the others to get out and leave us alone," said Karim Haidar, who sells eggs in Karbala.