BAGHDAD (Agencies)
U.S. and Iraqi forces are building a concrete wall through the Baghdad Shiite militia bastion of Sadr City on Saturday, as Iraqi troops said they captured a stronghold of fighters loyal to anti-U.S. Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in Basra after a massive show of force by U.S. warplanes and British artillery.
U.S. military sources said Saturday that the wall comes in a bid to stop militiamen firing rockets at the compound that houses the Iraqi government and the U.S. embassy.
The wall of varying height is being constructed along the main road dividing the southern side of Sadr City from the north of the sprawling district of some two million people.
The barrier of cement blocks, some up to three meters (12 feet) high, "will enclose the neighborhood (the southern section) in order to control access in and out of the area," U.S. military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Steven Stover told AFP. Stover said it was the plan of the Iraqi government. "We don't operate independently."
He said the wall was intended to prevent the "indiscriminate rocket fire" coming from Sadr City. The military says the rocket fire is aimed at the heavily fortified Green Zone compound that houses Iraqi government offices and the U.S. embassy.
In Basra, meanwhile, thundering explosions and gunfire could be heard at dawn under the heaviest bombardment since Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki launched a crackdown on Sadr's followers late last month in the southern city.
The commander of Iraqi forces in Basra, Lieutenant-General Mohan al-Furaiji, told Reuters his troops had seized the center of the Hayaniya neighborhood, one of the main strongholds of
Sadr's Mehdi Army fighters.
"Our troops moved in there, and now they have reached the centre of Hayaniya. Now there are no confrontations, and anyone carrying weapons will be arrested," he said.
"We are chasing fugitives and arresting them. We expect within the next few hours that the operation will be concluded successfully."
Fresh clashes also erupted overnight between Iraqi police and Shiite militiamen in the southern city of Nasiriyah, in which two militiamen were killed, police said on Saturday.
The clashes between fighters of the Mahdi Army and police broke out in the southern
Souk al-Shiuk district of the city, district police chief Hassan Yassir said.
"The Mahdi Army has been visible in the center and some suburbs of Nasiriyah since the fighting erupted," Yassir told AFP.
"The Iraqi forces are surrounding the Mahdi Army fighters in some areas," he said, adding that three policemen had also been wounded in the overnight clashes.
Nasiriyah saw heavy clashes last month when an assault by Iraqi security forces on Shiite militia in Basra sparked fighting across Shiite areas of Iraq. |
