Iraqi troops cordon off Shi'ite cleric's office

Iraqi troops clashed with Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's militia today in what was described as some of the heaviest fighting in Baghdad for weeks.

Amid blinding dust storms, Sadr's Mehdi Army fighters attacked Iraqi army positions in east Baghdad's Sadr City slum, but US forces said Iraqi troops stood their ground.

An Iraqi security source described the fighting as among the heaviest since confrontation erupted there in late March. The source said seven people had died in combat lasting four to five hours. A nearby market was in flames.

Ali Bustan, head of the health directorate for east Baghdad, said 132 wounded were brought to Sadr City's two hospitals by nightfall.

"The Iraqi Army still hold their positions in Sadr City," US military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Steven Stover said, quoting a dispatch from US troops at the front. "They are currently under attack but are organising a counter-attack."

Three weeks of fighting
Sadr City, home to 2 million people, has seen fighting for three weeks that has trapped many residents in their homes.

In the southern city of Basra, where the government launched a botched crackdown on Sadr's militia in March, government troops surrounded the office of the cleric's followers and prevented them from attending weekly prayers.

The battle in Sadr City is being seen as a key test for Iraq's army after the Basra crackdown sparked violent clashes across southern Iraq and in Baghdad. After that crackdown, 1 300 soldiers and police were sacked for refusing to fight.

The fresh fighting has fuelled concerns that a period of declining violence credited to last year's "surge" in US troop levels is coming to an end, just as the American reinforcements are returning home. - Reuters