Iraqis began celebrating the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan Monday, but festivities were subdued by intense U.S. security after the grisly killings of American soldiers at the weekend.

Thousands of Sunni Muslims gathered at Baghdad's Abu Hanifa mosque, one of Sunni Islam's holiest shrines, to pray and participate in the Eid al-Fitr, the celebration that marks the end of a month of dawn-to-dusk fasting.

A U.S. soldier aims his rifle at an Iraqi man stopped for a security check following a roadside bomb explosion in Baghdad November 24, 2003. There were no casualties reported.  [Reuters]

U.S. military helicopters clattered low overhead, keeping watch over the city following a series of small explosions earlier in the day and amid widespread security after three U.S. soldiers were killed in two separate attacks Sunday.

"I don't think of this as Eid. If the Americans left and there was a new government, with law and order, then every day would be Eid,' said Abdel Wadoud Doukhi as he left the mosque.

U.S. forces are on high alert for an intensification of attacks following the end of Ramadan. For most Sunnis, the holy month ends Monday, but for Shi'ites, who make up 60 percent of Iraq's population, Ramadan ends a day later this year.

Two U.S. soldiers were shot in the northern city of Mosul Sunday, before being dragged from their civilian car in broad daylight and beaten and stabbed by an angry crowd of young men, witnesses said.

The killings were the most brazen in a recent rash of bold attacks by anti-American insurgents that have led to the death of 70 U.S. soldiers in the past month. Another soldier was killed and two were wounded by a roadside bomb near the town of Baquba, 40 miles north of Baghdad, Sunday.

Mosul, a city that was considered fairly stable following the fall of Saddam Hussein, has seen an upsurge in violence in recent weeks. A roadside blast injured a soldier there on Monday.

ARAB TV BUREAU SHUT DOWN

Since Washington declared major combat in Iraq over on May 1, 185 soldiers have died in action. In an attempt to offset doubts over its handling of the worsening insurgency, U.S. authorities have launched a media blitz to try to convince the public and a skeptical press that it is making progress in Iraq.

Picture dated 06 Nov.2003 shows two masked anti-coalition fighters holding SA-14 surface-to-air missiles in an unidentified location south of Baghdad. Handout photo from Le Nouvel Observateur.  [AFP]

The U.S.-appointed Governing Council in Iraq announced Monday it was taking legal action against Dubai-based Arabic news channel Al Arabiya, accusing it of inciting violence, and sent police to its Baghdad bureau to shut it down.

The move was ordered by Jalal Talabani, the president of the Council, and comes days after Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld complained that Al Arabiya and Qatar-based Al Jazeera were openly hostile to America and their bias should be countered.

U.S. authorities have introduced a law in post-war Iraq banning the media from inciting hatred. Al Arabiya has broadcast several audio tapes purportedly from Saddam Hussein, calling on Iraqis to attack and drive out U.S.-led forces.

Al Arabiya denied the charges and said punishing the media was no solution to violence.

"Al Arabiya regrets this measure and rejects the accusation of promoting violence," the channel said in a statement.

"It stresses that in its news coverage it has abided by and continues to abide by policies of neutrality and objectivity through which it conveys an undistorted and real picture of what is happening in the world."

In the United States, senior Democrats said U.S. President Bush urgently needed to send more troops to Iraq to quash the growing insurgency.

"I understand it's incredibly difficult for the president to go to the American people and say we're going to put more troops in near term," Senator Joseph Biden, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told U.S. television.

"(But) there is not enough force or the right type of force there at this moment to quell the insurgency."

As well as ambushes on U.S. troops, guerrillas have also mounted attacks on Iraq's energy infrastructure. A major oil export pipeline to Turkey was ablaze Monday north of the oil refining town of Baiji and a gas pipeline was also hit.

Saboteurs have repeatedly blown up and set fire to the oil line in recent months, in a show of defiance against the U.S. occupation and in an effort to disrupt reconstruction.

Iraqi officials are increasingly worried about oil shortages in a country that sits on the world's second largest proven crude reserves.

"Iraqis are hoarding oil products," Dathar al-Khashab, head of the state-owned Central Refineries Company told Reuters. "Domestic production and import flows are fluctuating, and the country has no spare storage capacity."

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