"I will kill you all.", lieutenant tells journalists.
A police lieutenant arrived at the hotel at 6.30pm in a convoy of two Toyota Land Cruisers from the local police station. He demanded to know the whereabouts of correspondents from al-Arabiya and the Reuters and AP news agencies.
As journalists protested, the lieutenant said above the hubbub: "We are going to open fire on this hotel. We are going to smash it up. I will kill you all. You did this all to yourselves." In a threat that did not immediately appear to have been carried out, he said four snipers would be positioned on the roof of the police station to fire at any journalists who left the hotel.
His visit was the fourth by police in just over 24 hours and followed a threat earlier in the day by the chief of Najaf police, Ghaleb al-Jazaari, that he would arrest the correspondent from al-Arabiya. But the police chief, who on Sunday ordered all journalists to leave Najaf, added that reporters were free to stay at the hotel at their own risk. "We are not responsible (for you)" he added."
Scuffling broke out as a hotel employee angrily remonstrated with the policemen saying "Are you Iraqis? You are police but you have no right to do this." The police then drove off, stopping 300 metres down the road and fired warning shots in the direction of the hotel.
After pushing and shoving in the foyer, another policeman pointed his gun towards a member of the staff, but was disarmed by an Arab television journalist.
Al-Arabiya reporter Ahmed al-Salahih arrested
Ten uniformed policemen walked into the hotel and demanded that the al-Arabiya, Reuters and AP correspondents go with them.
Journalists told them they were not there, but the policemen found and arrested Ahmed al-Salahih, the al-Arabiya correspondent, who the day before had been given a special exemption from the earlier eviction orders.
The [reporters] had earlier defied calls to leave Najaf on Sunday night, when Iraqi police said they were acting on orders from the interior ministry to force them to leave the city.
Reuters Reporter Wounded
Ali Abu Al-Shish, a photographer working for the news agency in Najaf, was hit by shrapnel during fighting between US forces and fighters loyal to radical Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
"A bullet went past him and passed very close to him. Shrapnel from the bullet wounded him in the leg," said a spokeswoman.
The wounds were not life-threatening and the photographer, who was taking pictures with an American military unit at the time, is being treated at a US army hospital. It was not known who fired the shot that wounded him.