NAJAF, Iraq -- About 1,000 people, including a few women in black veils, marched through the streets of Najaf on Tuesday to urge radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his followers to leave the city.

Tensions rose as the marchers passed by al-Sadr's office. Fighters from his al-Mahdi Army took up position and fired weapons into the air, but there was no clash and the march continued without incident.

The marchers also passed by the house of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani on Prophet's Street. The marchers carried portraits of al-Sistani, Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric, and of Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim, a member of Iraq's Governing Council and leader of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Republic of Iraq, a rival to al-Sadr's group.

Moderate Shiite leaders have Al-Sadr took refuge in this Shiite holy city early last month after U.S. authorities announced a warrant charging him in the April 2003 assassination of a moderate, rival cleric.

Since then, al-Sadr's forces have clashed repeatedly with U.S., British and other coalition forces in Shiite areas of southern Iraq and Baghdad. Moderate Shiite leaders have urged al-Sadr to end his standoff with the Americans.

U.S. forces have vowed to kill or capture al-Sadr but have escalated the confrontation in measured steps to avoid inflaming Shiite passions. They have also avoided an all-out assault on Najaf to avoid damaging Shiite religious shrines.