Fighting took place near Karbala in recent days as Iraq's elite Republican Guard resisted the US-British push towards Baghdad but US military officials said Thursday they had defeated Saddam Hussein's crack troops and moved beyond Karbala.

An AFP reporter travelling with the US 3rd Infantry Division earlier reported passing through the so-called Karbala gap to the west of the city.

The "Karbala gap" is a narrow sandy corridor between the Euphrates river to the east and the Bahr al-Milh lake to the west, strategically vital for any advance on Baghdad as it is the last natural obstacle coming from the south.

The Iraqi authorities on Thursday tried to wind up the Shiite community worldwide over the US and British operations near Karbala and Najaf, another holy city around 60 kilometres (38 miles) to the south.

Information Minister Mohammed Said al-Sahhaf accused the coalition forces of trying to destroy mosques in the two cities.

"They are trying to crack the buildings by flying low over them... This will be scorned by all Shiites all over the world," he warned.

For its part the Iran-based Supreme Assembly of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SAIRI) said in a statement that damage to Najaf and Karbala would "insult Islamic values and the feelings of millions of Muslims throughout the world."

Both cities are considered by Shiites the holiest sites in Islam after Mecca and Medina and attract hundreds of thousands of pilgrims each year.

Najaf, is the burial site of Ali, the son of the Prophet Mohammad and the founder of what became the Shiite branch of Islam.

The term Shiite derives from the phrase Shiat Ali, or partisans of Ali. Followers believe he was the legitimate successor to the prophet.

After Ali was assassinated in 661, his supporters followed his sons Hussein and Hassan in their battle against the Sunni-backed Caliphs for the right to lead all Muslims.

But Hussein was decapitated during an unequal battle against Caliph Umayyad as he was marching towards central Iraq with a handful of men.

Karbala -- a city of between 300,000 and half a million -- is where he is buried. His death was the final act in the schism between Shiite and Sunni Muslims that exists to this day.

Shiites commemorate Hussein's martyrdom in self-flagellation rituals during the mourning month of Muharram and the holy day of Ashura.

Shiite pilgrims also visit Karbala because it housed one of the main Shiite theology schools specializing in the Shiite jurisprudence. Upon their return to their homeland they will be honored to be called Karbalaii, meaning a person who pilgrimed in Karbala.

A brief Shiite uprising during the previous Gulf War in 1991 was crushed in Karbala after promised US support failed to materialise.

Saddam, who comes from the minority Sunni community, wreaked vengeance on the Shiites in Karbala and elsewhere, with tens of thousands reportedly killed and various sacred sites damaged.

Although Shiites are eager to see Saddam go, there is smouldering anger in Najaf and Karbala towards the Americans over their defection in 1991.

SPACE.WIRE