 The main coalition base at Najaf was defended by Salvadoran troops, Blackwater contratists and Spanish armoured vehicles, which repelled the attack of several technicals.Four Spanish Pegaso BMR armoured personnel carriers and two VEC-M1 armoured reconnaissance vehicles, amidst heavy hostile fire, broke through the old Najaf's prison, used as a recruitment center by the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps.A number of Salvadoran, Honduran and Iraqi soldiers were besieged inside the compound by members of the Mahdi army.