BAGHDAD (Agencies)
Fierce clashes between Shiite militiamen and U.S. and Iraqi forces in eastern Baghdad killed at least 38 people, including 22 who died when a U.S. tank fired on attackers, the American military said Monday.
Others died when troops responded after they were attacked with small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades in Sadr City, the Baghdad bastion of the Mahdi Army militia of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, statements issued Monday said.
The 22 were killed in one of the biggest in attacks in weeks, and indicated some fighters had defied an order by anti-American Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr to observe a ceasefire.
It took place late on Sunday about the same time as a barrage of rockets struck the Green Zone, the fortified government and diplomatic compound in the centre of the capital.
The dust storms grounded U.S. helicopters, the main weapon American troops use to hunt rocket crews.
The military said in a statement its soldiers used tanks to return fire on attackers who struck a joint U.S.-Iraqi checkpoint in northeast Baghdad.
It did not give the precise location of the battle in northeast Baghdad, but described a unit that has been deployed near Sadr City, the crowded slum of 2 million people where Sadr's Mahdi Army fighters hold sway.
The attack and missile strikes appeared to defy a renewed call for a ceasefire by Sadr, who had praised his followers on Friday for refraining from attacks and told them they should not fight Iraqi troops.
Sirens continued to wail from the Green Zone in the early hours of Monday, signaling to people to take cover inside the heavily fortified compound on the west bank of the Tigris River.
Iraqi police said eight missiles or mortars bombs hit the Green Zone and 14 fell in other parts of the Iraqi capital before nightfall in several quick bursts, killing two people and wounding 20. At least one more barrage of missiles was fired later.
The United States blames rogue elements of Sadr's militia for firing the rockets. It accuses neighboring Iran of supplying the weapons and says some were made as recently as last year. Iran denies the accusations.
Militiamen have fired 700 missiles and mortars over the past month in Baghdad, but U.S. forces had said they believed they had reduced the fighters' ability to strike the Green Zone by occupying the part of the Sadr City slum closest to it. |
