US occupation forces have hit a part of the Imam Ali shrine in Najaf causing damage to its outer wall, as fierce fighting continues. Director of the al-Sadr office in Nasiriya Aws al-Khafaji told Aljazeera the damage occurred during clashes between the occupation forces and the al-Mahdi Army on Sunday night. Supporters of Muqtada al-Sadr said US aircraft had fired a rocket into the outer western wall of the mosque compound, the news agency AFP reported. The US military denied that the shrine had been targeted. There was a dent in the wall measuring about one metre (three feet) square and 30 centimetres (one foot) deep, with rubble and spent parts of a rocket littered on the marble floor, an AFP correspondent said. "It was around 11:00 pm to 11:30 pm (1930 GMT). Two rockets were fired from an American Apache. One hit the western wall of the shrine and the other a nearby hotel," said an al-Sadr aide Shaikh Ali Husayn Ali. **Resting place*** The hotel is a known resting place for commanders in the al-Mahdi Army. Earlier, in the fierce fighting on Sunday night, one person was killed and three wounded, said a doctor at a clinic in the shrine, with another four patients brought in on Monday morning. At around 0200am (2200 GMT) on Monday, a US AC-130 gunship attacked al-Mahdi positions. Later on Monday morning, US troops and Shia fighters fought fierce battles in Najaf with multiple explosions and gunfire echoing around the Imam Ali shrine. At least 10 explosions, some sounding like artillery shells, rocked the area near the shrine. Shrapnel landed in the courtyard of the gold-domed mosque, near the already-damaged outer walls. US tanks were not visible in the neighbourhood of the shrine, where previously they were parked within 200 metres of the compound. In the shrine's courtyard, dozens of fighters and civilians turned towards the shrine itself to chant repeatedly "Muqtada We Are With You", "Imam Ali We Are With You". **Fighters in control*** Meanwhile the al-Sadr aide in Nasiriya al-Khafaji said al-Mahdi fighters were still controlling the old city area near the shrine in Najaf. The keys have not yet been delivered to Shia cleric Ayatullah Ali al-Sistani as some related issues are still to be sorted out, al-Khafaji said. Even if the keys are delivered to al-Sistani, the al-Mahdi Army would continue to protect the Imam Ali shrine "as it can never be protected by the Americans or even the Iraqi police forces who have stained their hands with the blood of Shia Muslim Iraqis," al-Khafaji said. "Sons of the city are the only ones who should protect the shrine," he said. "Al-Mahdi forces are the sons of the city and are ready to protect the shrine," the aide added. "Al-Mahdi forces who will protect the shrine, should necessarily not be armed," al-Khafaji said. Al-Sadr spokesman in Najaf Shaikh Ahmad al-Shaibani also told our correspondent the al-Mahdi Army would continue protecting the shrine even if Muqtada al-Sadr handed over its keys to al-Sistani. The fighting in Najaf has triggered protests in seven other southern and central cities, including Baghdad. Serious damage to the mosque precincts could enrage millions of Shia Muslims and fuel hostility to the US presence in Iraq. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Al-Mahdi fighters continue to control Imam Ali shrine. (Al-Jazeera)