US planes have pounded the central Najaf as intense clashes rage on between occupation troops and Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr's al-Mahdi army in the worst fighting since a truce was agreed in June. Nearly 30 people were killed and more than 130 wounded on Friday as the unrest fanned out across central and southern Iraq, with clashes with British troops in Basra, Italian troops in Nasiriya and US troops in Shia areas of Baghdad. Columns of thick black smoke could be seen rising up from Najaf, as residents stayed at home with their doors bolted and fighters loyal to al-Sadr took control over the streets. US planes fired rockets over the city and its cemetery, an al-Sadr stronghold which suffered some of the worst fighting during the al-Mahdi Army's first stand off with the occupation troops. **Set alight*** One ambulance was set alight and burnt out civilian cars littered the deserted streets, said an AFP correspondent. Italian troops are based on one side of the city, with al-Mahdi fighters deployed on the other side of the Euphrates river. Only the sound of sporadic gunfire could be heard early on Friday. Four bodies and 10 people with injuries were admitted to hospital on Thursday night, said Captain Amar Ali, the chief police officer at the hospital. Power lines were also cut. At 4:00 am (0000 GMT) four fighters also attacked a police station in the eastern part of the city. No casualties were reported in the incident. In Baghdad, 15 US soldiers were wounded in attacks lasting over six hours in al-Sadr City neighbourhood, the military said. Eight people were killed and 82 wounded in fighting in al-Sadr City on Thursday, the health ministry said. **High tension*** In the southern city of Nasiriya Italian forces clashed with Shia fighters in the early on Friday and tensions were still high, an Italian military spokesman said. In more than a dozen attacks that began shortly after midnight (2000 GMT Thursday), al-Mahdi fighters fired rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and light arms at Italian patrols, key installations such as a power plant and an Iraqi police base, the Italian army said. "It has been an extremely tense night and we are maintaining maximum alert," said Captain Ettore Sarli, chief spokesman for Italian occupation forces in Nasiriya. "An Italian task force has control of the centre of Nasiriya and its bridges, and we are seeking mediation with the militia via the governor of the city," he said. The al-Mahdi claimed to have destroyed at least four Italian armoured trucks in the fighting. Sarli confirmed various attacks on Italian patrols, but said there was no indication so far that four military vehicles had been destroyed. Al-Sadr's army also claimed to have attacked British forces in the southern city of Amara, but that could not be independently confirmed. The clashes come after a two-month uprising by al-Sadr's followers in April and May which led to bloodshed across much of mostly Shia southern Iraq. A tentative truce was struck in June, but now appears to have broken down. **PHOTO CAPTION*** A British Army soldier watches a street from the cover of a palm tree in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, August 5, 2004. (Reuters)