US forces crack down on growing unrest in Iraq

The occupation authority warned it would enforce a ban on incitement even in mosques as a US soldier and prominent Iraqi tribal leader were killed in separate attacks.

"This applies to the territory of Iraq. We respect religious sites... but if we hear that there are groups who are using and abusing religious establishments such as mosques to incite religious or ethnic violence we would consider taking action," a spokesman for the US-led administration said on condition of anonymity.

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"Nothing in this notice will be designed to curb public debate. It is certainly not going to be illegal to criticize the coalition."

The announcement came just hours after one US soldier was killed and five wounded in the flashpoint city of Fallujah, where anti-US sentiment has been high.

It was the second deadly assault on US troops in Fallujah in nine days and came just hours after more than 1,000 soldiers poured into the area to clamp down on the spate of violence against the US occupation forces.

The spokesman said a primary concern in drawing up the new ban had been to prevent incitement against Iraq's ethnic and religious minorities in the face of the huge communal tensions stoked for decades by Saddam's Baath party regime.

In a sign of the continuing tensions, an influential tribal leader with ties to Saddam's regime was shot dead in the British-occupied southern city of Basra.

Sheikh Ali Najm al-Saadun was killed near the Basra office of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the main Iraqi Shiite movement. Members of his tribe said they suspected the group's armed wing, the Badr Brigade, of being behind the murder.