Police arrest 4 in beheading of American Nicholas Berg

Fighting was heavy in Karbala, Najaf and Kufa.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Iraqi police have arrested four people in the killing of American Nicholas Berg, an Iraqi security official said today.
The suspects are former members of Saddam Hussein's Fedayeen paramilitary organization, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. They were arrested a week ago in a house in Salaheddin province, north of Baghdad.
The group that was involved in the killing of Berg was led by Yasser al-Sabawi, a nephew of Saddam Hussein, the security official said. He said American intelligence had asked Iraqi authorities to hand over the suspects, but they were still in Iraqi hands.
Al-Sabawi was not among those arrested, the Iraqi official said.
American officials have said they believe Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian wanted for allegedly organizing terrorists to fight U.S. troops in Iraq on behalf of Al-Qaida, carried out Berg's killing.
Killing on video
A video posted May 11 on an Al-Qaida-linked Web site showed a bound Berg in an orange jumpsuit -- similar to those issued to prisoners held by the American military at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He was sitting in front of five men, their faces masked, as one read an anti-American text.
After pushing Berg to the floor, the men severed his head and held it up for the camera. They said his killing was in response to the abuse of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison.
Also today, Iraqi insurgents captured a Spanish National Radio reporter in Najaf, the station said. Correspondent Fran Sevilla reported this morning on the withdrawal of Spanish troops from another city, Diwaniya, and was seized when he traveled to Najaf to report on a sermon by al-Sadr, station news director Javier Arenas said.
American AC-130 gunships and tanks pounded militia positions early today near two shrines in the center of the holy city of Karbala, and the U.S. military said it killed 18 fighters loyal to a rebel cleric. Hospital officials said the dead included two Iranian pilgrims.
U.S. forces withdrew from a mosque in the city center that had been used by insurgents as a base of operations, but said patrols in the city would continue.
Fighting between American forces and cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's militia was also heavy in Najaf and neighboring Kufa, south of Baghdad. Explosions rocked the center of Najaf, near local government buildings, and Friday prayers were canceled because of the violence.
A huge fire blazed in a vegetable market.