Sadr City braces for fresh street battles

Residents of Baghdad's Shiite slum fear violence in Basra between the Mahdi Army and Iraqi forces will spread to Baghdad.

from the March 27, 2008 edition

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Several other Iraqi government checkpoints were attacked by militiamen with mortars and gunfire. Heavy clashes pitted US and Iraqi forces against the militia for almost an hour in the northeastern neighborhood of Shaab, according to residents and an Interior Ministry official there.

As night fell, the sound of heavy gunfire and explosions echoed throughout Sadr City.

"Much of the indirect fire that has been directed towards neighborhoods here in Baghdad has emanated from … Sadr City in particular. We do have a responsibility to work with Iraqi security forces to interdict the ability for the … cells to continue doing what they are doing … and to enforce the rule of law against criminal activities and illegal armed groups that might be seeking to impose their own intimidation," said Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner, a spokesman for US-led forces in Iraq, when asked about the enforced US and Iraqi Army ring around Sadr City.

During his press conference, and shortly afterward, several rocket or mortar explosions echoed inside the heavily protected Green Zone, home to top US and Iraqi officials.

Three Americans were seriously injured in the attacks, US Embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo said.

At least eight Iraqis also were killed after rounds fell short in several areas of Baghdad.

An American financial analyst working for the Embassy was killed in a rocket attack Sunday on the Green Zone.

In Basra, a showdown between government forces and the Mahdi militiamen looms. On Wednesday, the Iraqi government gave a 72-hour ultimatum to the Mahdi Army militia to lay down its weapons or face an all-out assault.

Some American elements were embedded as advisers and "transition teams" with Iraqi units fighting in Basra, said a US military spokesman.

Top political and clerical leaders allied to Sadr have all accused the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and particularly its Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq and Badr Organization factions of seeking to finish off the movement in the south and Baghdad with the help of the Americans.

Mr. Maliki remained in Basra to supervise the crackdown against the spiraling violence between militia factions vying for control in the city located near the Iranian border.

Officials in Sadr's headquarters in Najaf, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said the anti-US cleric had sent local representatives to ask Maliki to leave Basra and to resolve the problems peacefully. The aides also told the government no negotiations could be held until Iraqi reinforcements withdrew from the city.

• Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.

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