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Shiite Shrine Spared, Troops Hailed
(Los Angeles Times) - U.S. forces in Najaf, the central Iraqi city revered by the world's Shiite Muslims, have secured the gold-domed Ali mosque after three days of furious combat. Residents here seemed to sense Wednesday that something fundamental had shifted in their lives and that a grave threat to their religious heritage had fallen away. Thousands poured into the streets, cheering a Humvee convoy carrying a U.S. colonel, as the city's senior cleric, Said Ali Sistani, was freed from more than 15 years of house arrest imposed by Hussein's regime.