http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=4820253§ion=news
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – U.S. forces prepared for action in one of Iraq’s holiest cities on Wednesday after vowing to kill or capture a radical Shi’ite cleric based there.
The military buildup around Najaf, south of Baghdad, was going ahead just hours after President Bush vowed to stay the course in Iraq despite a surge in violence and said a June 30 handover to Iraqi sovereignty would go ahead.
Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, a senior military spokesman, said a powerful U.S. force was building outside Najaf, where Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has taken refuge near the city’s main Imam Ali shrine.