Al-Sadr rails against Bush, Iraqi prisoner abuse
U.S. troops battle radical cleric's militia
 |  Al-Sadr speaks at prayers in Kufa Friday. |
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 A suicide attacker detonates a car bomb outside the U.S.-led coalition's headquarters in Baghdad.
 U.S. troops fight with insurgents after moving into Najaf, Iraq, and taking control of the provincial governor's office.
 Defense Secretary Rumsfeld is under fire over prisoner abuse scandal.
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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr rallied his supporters with condemnation of the prisoner abuse crisis during his weekly sermon Friday at Kufa mosque, near the site of pitched battles between his Mehdi Army militia and U.S. troops.
Al-Sadr told his chanting followers that President Bush "is standing shamelessly in front of the world talking about all this prisoner abuse. What peace can be expected from him?"
Images of U.S. military personnel abusing Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison have shocked the world.
The cleric also said: "What the Americans have done is worse than what Saddam did because the Americans claimed that they were coming here to bring democracy and freedom and Saddam never pretended that."
It is not clear if that statement is open-ended or referring particularly to the prison abuse.
Earlier, as he walked to the mosque, his supporters chanted, "No one can beat al-Sadr."
The Kufa mosque is a few miles from al-Sadr's office in nearby Najaf.
Thursday was particularly volatile in Najaf, Kufa, and Karbala, all places where the Mehdi Army is well dug in.
Coalition troops moved into Najaf and took over the provincial governor's office without resistance. Sporadic fighting into the night left 12 insurgents dead.
Just before midnight, the U.S. Army base in Najaf came under an intense mortar attack, according to CNN's Jane Arraf, who is there. No U.S. casualties were reported, she said.
A U.S. F-16 fighter jet dropped a 500-pound bomb on one of the positions from which the mortars were being fired, military officials told CNN.
Troops and members of the Mehdi Army fought elsewhere in the Najaf region. The main engagement took place in the Kufa area, where at least 40 of the insurgents were killed.
In Karbala, an operation to secure the city has been launched. A routine coalition patrol was attacked by suspected insurgents firing rocket-propelled grenades, and coalition forces shot back, killing six of the fighters.
Two journalists with Poland's state television agency were killed in an ambush near Mahmoudiyah as they were headed south toward Najaf. (Full story)
Police killed in Mosul attack
On Friday in northern Iraq, insurgents ambushed a police car in Mosul, killing four Iraqi officers and wounding another, police and hospital authorities told CNN.
The patrol car was driving in the Mamon district of western Mosul when it was struck by an improvised explosive device.
Then, five attackers sprayed the car with small arms fire.
The wounded police officer is in critical condition.
Elsewhere in the city, two Task Force Baghdad soldiers were killed and two were wounded by improvised bomb just before midnight Wednesday.
Other developments
U.S. Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld is appearing on Capitol Hill on Friday to discuss the Pentagon's handling of the charges of abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. personnel. Rumsfeld is scheduled to testify before the Senate and House Armed Services Committees and attend a closed session of the full Senate. (Full story)Suspected insurgents attacked a Polish TV crew in an ambush Friday, killing two and injuring two others south of the Iraqi capital near Mahmoudiyah. Poland's TVP identified one of the slain journalists as Waldemar Milewicz, a well-known war correspondent for that network. The other victim was producer Mounir Bouamrane, the network said. (Full story)A suicide car bombing killed at least five Iraqis and a U.S. soldier early Thursday near Baghdad's Green Zone. Twenty-five people, including two U.S. soldiers, were wounded. The death count does not include the bomber. The deaths brought the number of U.S. troops killed since the war started to 769 -- 561 of them in hostile action. The Arabic-language Al-Arabiya television network broadcast video of an American hostage in Iraq who identified himself as Aban Elias. Elias' brother said Aban Elias is a U.S. citizen who was born in Iraq and had moved back to the country to work on road projects. (Full story)The Senate Thursday overwhelmingly confirmed John Negroponte as the new U.S. ambassador to Iraq, clearing him to run the world's largest U.S. Embassy after the scheduled handover of sovereignty June 30. The vote was 95-3 to confirm Negroponte, currently the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.The U.N.'s top human rights envoy is preparing a report on human rights in Iraq, including the treatment of civilians and prisoners. The report will cover the period from April 2003 to May 2004. The report will also cover the military and security situation in Iraq, including terrorism, the situation of women and children, religious freedom and civil and political rights.CNN's Jane Arraf in Najaf and Mike Mount in Washington contributed to this report.
