[6] A patrol by Combined Anti-Armor Team (CAAT) Alpha, Weapons Company, 1st Battalion, 4th Marines (1/4) approached a maternity clinic located directly across the street from the home of Muqtada al-Sadr on the outskirts of the city.

The clinic was in an area authorized for U.S. presence under a June cease-fire agreement brokered between coalition forces and Muqtada Sadr by the governor of Najaf, other local civic leaders, and the Bayt al-Shia (the informal council of senior Shia clerics).

CAAT Alpha faced mortars, RPGs (Rocket Propelled Grenades) and small arms fire with one Marine wounded until the unit ran low on ammunition.

[8] Around 11 am the quick reaction force came under heavy machine gun and mortar fire from the Mahdi Army within the Wadi-us-Salaam, the largest cemetery in the Muslim world approximately 7 miles squared.

A U.S. Marine UH-1N helicopter was shot down by small-arms fire on the second day of the fighting while conducting a close air support mission over enemy positions, the crew survived.

The successful airstrike dealt a devastating blow to Sadr and led to a hasty settlement with Grand Ayatollah Sistani the following morning which allowed Al-Sadr and the remnants of his militia to leave Najaf.

This arrangement was favorable to the Americans because it relieved them of the need to enter the Imam Ali Mosque.Marines from 1st Blt , 4th Mariens lined the street watching Sadr's Mahdi Army leave the mosque.

The battle ended on 27 August 2004 with a negotiated ceasefire: Mahdi army fighters left the Imam Ali shrine among the Pilgrim crowd and none of them were detained; The Iraqi police took control of the security in the city.