Shi’ite militia clash with Iraqi and US forces in Baghdad

Iraqi and US forces fought a deadly gunbattle with Shi’ite militiamen after launching an overnight raid on an impoverished eastern Baghdad district, defence ministry and militia officials said yesterday.

In a spate of rebel attacks yesterday, 11 people, including six Iraqi soldiers and two policemen, were killed across Iraq. Separately, the US military announced the deaths of three of its soldiers southwest of Baghdad on Sunday in a roadside bomb attack.The gunbattle, which pitched Iraqi forces and US advisers against the Mehdi Army of radical Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, was the first such clash since US reinforcements began rolling into Baghad to quell a brutal sectarian war.Mohammed al-Askari, a spokesman for the Iraqi defence ministry, said: “Our forces, supported by multinational forces, headed to a target based on certain intelligence information to arrest three wanted men.”As they arrived, they received fire, so they responded to protect themselves and protect people from these terrorists.Now everything is quiet,” he said, explaining that there had been talks with local leaders.”The fight continued for two hours.As a result two militiamen were killed and three others wounded.Two Iraqi soldiers were wounded,” a defence official said.Staff at the district’s Imam Ali hospital said three civilians were killed – including a woman and a three-year-old girl – and 18 wounded.An AFP journalist in Sadr City reported that the raid on the area, a stronghold of the firebrand cleric, was accompanied by air strikes.Fallah Shanshal, a lawmaker from Sadr’s camp, complained that the cleric’s followers were being attacked by US-led forces instead of loyalists of former president Saddam Hussein and “terrorists”, whom he thought better targets.”The raid was also an act of disrespect to the prime minister’s decision to not carrying out such operations during nightime.We demand an investigation to reveal which dirty squad took part in the raid,” he told reporters.Shanshal also said the raid was a reaction to an anti-American and anti-Israeli street rally carried out Mehdi Army supporters on Friday.But according to a statement from the US-led coalition, the operation was aimed at “individuals involved in punishment and torture cell activities”.Sadr’s militiamen are widely alleged to have taken part in a wave of sectarian and political murders across Baghdad in recent months, although coalition and Iraqi officials are careful never to accuse it publicly.”Iraqi forces, and their coalition advisers, began taking fire immediately upon arrival at their objective; the fire lasted for the duration of the operation and continued as they left the neighbourhood,” the US statement said.”Additionally, two large fires of unknown origin were observed by the Iraqi forces as they left their objective,” it added.One coalition soldier was injured in the firefight.US generals have made winning back Baghdad for the Iraqi government their priority, after violence split the city on sectarian lines and a vicious war between rival Sunni and Shi’ite death squads left thousands dead.Nampa-AFPSeparately, the US military announced the deaths of three of its soldiers southwest of Baghdad on Sunday in a roadside bomb attack.The gunbattle, which pitched Iraqi forces and US advisers against the Mehdi Army of radical Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, was the first such clash since US reinforcements began rolling into Baghad to quell a brutal sectarian war.Mohammed al-Askari, a spokesman for the Iraqi defence ministry, said: “Our forces, supported by multinational forces, headed to a target based on certain intelligence information to arrest three wanted men.”As they arrived, they received fire, so they responded to protect themselves and protect people from these terrorists.Now everything is quiet,” he said, explaining that there had been talks with local leaders.”The fight continued for two hours.As a result two militiamen were killed and three others wounded.Two Iraqi soldiers were wounded,” a defence official said.Staff at the district’s Imam Ali hospital said three civilians were killed – including a woman and a three-year-old girl – and 18 wounded.An AFP journalist in Sadr City reported that the raid on the area, a stronghold of the firebrand cleric, was accompanied by air strikes.Fallah Shanshal, a lawmaker from Sadr’s camp, complained that the cleric’s followers were being attacked by US-led forces instead of loyalists of former president Saddam Hussein and “terrorists”, whom he thought better targets.”The raid was also an act of disrespect to the prime minister’s decision to not carrying out such operations during nightime.We demand an investigation to reveal which dirty squad took part in the raid,” he told reporters.Shanshal also said the raid was a reaction to an anti-American and anti-Israeli street rally carried out Mehdi Army supporters on Friday.But according to a statement from the US-led coalition, the operation was aimed at “individuals involved in punishment and torture cell activities”.Sadr’s militiamen are widely alleged to have taken part in a wave of sectarian and political murders across Baghdad in recent months, although coalition and Iraqi officials are careful never to accuse it publicly.”Iraqi forces, and their coalition advisers, began taking fire immediately upon arrival at their objective; the fire lasted for the duration of the operation and continued as they left the neighbourhood,” the US statement said.”Additionally, two large fires of unknown origin were observed by the Iraqi forces as they left their objective,” it added.One coalition soldier was injured in the firefight.US generals have made winning back Baghdad for the Iraqi government their priority, after violence split the city on sectarian lines and a vicious war between rival Sunni and Shi’ite death squads left thousands dead.Nampa-AFP