Americans battle Sadr militia in Baghdad as Green Zone is struck again.

    Baghdad - American aircraft struck militia targets in Basra on Friday, the first time that airpower has been called in to aid a faltering ground offensive there against armed groups that operate outside government control.

    The U.S. military reported killing 78 "bad guys" in Baghdad in the past three days; American forces backed by combat helicopters continued Friday to battle members of the Mahdi Army, a militia loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, in Baghdad, while Iraqi forces took them on in the south.

    Militiamen fired rockets and mortar shells three times Friday at the fortified Green Zone, the location of the U.S. Embassy and Iraqi government offices. Mortar shells hit the offices of Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, killing two guards and wounding four others, officials reported.

    Green Zone attacks this week have killed two Americans; embassy personnel are sleeping in the thick-walled former palace of Saddam Hussein for protection.

    Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki launched the offensive with his troops in Basra on Monday. He has said the goal is to oust dueling Shiite militias and criminal gangs that controlled the city. But Sadr's followers call the offensive a politically motivated attempt to dismantle the Mahdi Army and thwart Sadr's influence in the country ahead of provincial elections this year.

    U.S. officials say Maliki launched the push without consulting them. With the Mahdi Army fighters putting up stiff resistance, American forces have been drawn deeper into the conflict to support their Iraqi allies, in some places taking the lead.

    The U.S. warplanes that struck in Basra fired cannons in two overnight strafing runs, killing three militia fighters, the British military reported. The targets were a militia mortar team and a militia stronghold, said Maj. Tom Holloway, a British military spokesman.

    Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the Iraqi government has been satisfied with the help it has been given. "At this moment, we feel that Iraqi security forces are doing well," he said.

    A source in the police command in Basra said he expected British and U.S. ground units to join the fight in coming days.

    Shiite fighters gave similar predictions. "Up to now, neither the Americans or Brits have staged any offensive against us in Basra, but it would happen very soon," said Abu Sadiq, a Mahdi Army commander who said he leads 30 fighters. "We are still fighting the Iraqi forces, and even if the occupiers start their offensive we are totally ready for them."

    A senior Iraqi military adviser has said the crackdown is taking longer than expected, partly because militia fighters have superior weapons.

    In a sign that the Basra fight might be a long one, Maliki's government eased a 24-hour curfew, allowing residents to leave their homes between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. People in the city complained that the government should have informed them in advance about the offensive so they could stockpile food, water and other basic needs.

    Maliki also extended a 72-hour deadline to April 8 for fighters to hand over medium and heavy weapons.

    Dabbagh said Maliki was planning to stay in Basra until order is imposed. "I can't count the days. It depends on the situation," he said.

    Residents of Basra reported general calm in the city Friday. But fighting raged in many other places in southern Iraq. South of Najaf, gunmen shot and killed Saad al-Shablawi, mayor of Ghamas, and wounded two of his guards. In retaliation, members of the mayor's tribe went to the Sadr office in the region and set it on fire. They killed two Mahdi militiamen and turned over nine others to Iraqi security forces.

    In Souk al-Shiyoukh, a town south of Nasiriyah, the mayor reported clashes erupting overnight when fighters attacked an Iraqi military brigade. In Shatra, north of Nasiriyah, police commanders reported clashes killing two policemen. And in Nasiriyah, police reported fighting between militias and Iraqi security forces in the northeastern part of the city. One person was reported killed.

    Dhafir Abu Sadiq, head of the Sadr organization's office in the city of Kut, reported that his men had surrounded dozens of Iraqi soldiers, some of whom decided to join the Sadr forces and others to go home. He said the Mahdi Army now fully controls the Numaniyah region, west of Kut.

    In Baghdad's Green Zone, U.S. government employees were going outside only on urgent business and wearing protective gear.

    Philip T. Reeker, the embassy spokesman, said employees have the option of sleeping inside the former Hussein palace or in other "hard cover" buildings in the compound, rather than in the compound's thin-roofed residential trailers.

    In an e-mail Friday night, Reeker said sleeping in the embassy was clearly a temporary precaution but "highly recommended given the harassing fire we've received in the past week." He went on: "I, for one, have pulled out a cot in my office."

    The U.S. military reported repeated clashes in Baghdad with militia fighters.

    At 4 a.m. in Sadr City, a helicopter killed four fighters who were engaging U.S. forces with small-arms fire, officials said. At 7 a.m., a U.S. helicopter's Hellfire missile targeted a vehicle armed with rocket-propelled grenades, killing two fighters in the Adhamiyah district of northern Baghdad.

    Later in the morning, soldiers fired on militants setting up improvised explosive devices and returning fire from and killing fighters who had rocket-propelled grenade launchers.

    "In the last 48 hours, we have seen more extremists," said Lt. Col. Steve Stover, a military spokesman in Baghdad. He said the military had killed 78 "bad guys" in the past three days. "They are violating the rule of law. They are firing rockets indiscriminately. They are criminals and terrorists, and they deserve to die."

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    Special correspondents Aahad Ali in Basra, Saad Sarhan in Najaf and Zaid Sabah and Dalya Hassan in Baghdad contributed to this report.

 

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    Go to Original

    US Jets Widen Basra Bombings

    The Associated Press

    Saturday 29 March 2008

Two precision-guided bombs dropped on conflict-riddled southern city.

    Baghdad - U.S. jets widened the bombing of Basra on Saturday, dropping two precision-guided bombs on a suspected militia stronghold north of the city hours after strafing a house and reportedly killing eight civilians, officials said.

    Maj. Tom Holloway, a British military spokesman, said U.S. jets dropped the two bombs on a militia position in Qarmat Ali shortly before 12:30 p.m. The southern city of Basra is Iraq's commercial and oil hub, and Shiite militants have been battling Iraqi and coalition forces there for a week.

    "My understanding was that this was a building that had people who were shooting back at Iraqi ground forces," Holloway said.

    The number of people killed in the latest strikes was not yet known, he said.

    Earlier, a U.S. warplane strafed a house in Basra and killed eight civilians, including two women and one child, Iraqi police said on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to release the information.

    The U.S. military had no immediate comment on the report.

    It was not possible to independently verify whether those killed in the first operation were civilians or combatants.

    The bombings came a day after the first American airstrikes were launched in Basra during a week-old offensive against militant followers of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

    Al-Maliki Vows to Stay in Basra

    Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki vowed to remain in Basra until security in the city is restored.

    Al-Maliki, speaking on government television Saturday, told tribal leaders in the southern city that he "will not leave Basra until security is restored" and those who have taken up arms against the government will be punished.

    "We will continue to stand up to these gangs in every inch of Iraq," he said. "This is a decisive and final battle."

    While the Iraqi police officer claimed it was a U.S. plane that strafed the house, British jets also have been providing air support in the area; it couldn't be immediately confirmed whether the plane was British or American.

    The British military had no immediate information but said it also was looking into the reports.

    "We are aware of reports of incidents in the Basra area resulting in civilian casualties," Holloway said earlier. "We are investigating those reports and do not have any further details at this time."

    "The Area was Lighted by Aircraft"

    AP Television News footage showed smoke rising from the home in Basra's Hananiyah neighborhood. Pools of blood and a destroyed pickup truck were seen outside the home hit by the plane.

    Sheik Nasir Abdul Hussein in Basra said the strikes came after midnight and were followed by gunmen shooting in the air. "The thunder of the aircraft frightened children," he said. "The sound smashed glasses, and the area was lighted by aircraft."

    American support came as Iraqi troops struggled against strong resistance in Basra, the nation's commercial center and headquarters of the vital oil industry. Clashes there have sparked retaliatory fights in Baghdad and other Shiite cities.

    U.S. military intelligence analysis of the fighting in Basra indicated Iraqi security forces controlled less than a quarter of the city, CNN reported on Saturday, citing unnamed officials in the U.S. and Iraq. The analysis also said militia members have deeply infiltrated Basra's police units.

    The fight for Basra is crucial for of al-Maliki, who flew to Basra earlier this week and is staking his credibility on gaining control of the city, Iraq's second largest, which has essentially been held by armed groups for nearly three years.

    Violent Reaction to Crackdown

    The crackdown in Basra has provoked a violent reaction - especially from al-Sadr's Mahdi Army. His followers accuse rival Shiite parties in the government of trying to crush their movement before provincial elections this fall.

    Their anger has led to a sharp increase in attacks against American troops in Shiite areas following months of relative calm after al-Sadr declared a unilateral cease-fire last August and recently extended it for six months.

    In extracts of an interview broadcast by the Al-Jazeera television network, al-Sadr called Saturday for Arab leaders to voice their support for Iraq's "resistance" to what he calls foreign occupation.

    Many Shiite militias, including the Mahdi Army, are believed to receive weapons, money and training from nearby Iran, the world's most populous Shiite nation.

    The situation in Basra remained tense as a Friday deadline for gunmen to surrender their weapons and renounce violence expired, although a few complied. Al-Maliki's office announced a new deal, offering Basra residents unspecified monetary compensation if they turn over "heavy and medium-size weapons" by April 8.

    In Baghdad, Iraqi police said U.S. helicopters carried out airstrikes on the Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City Friday night. Television footage showed destroyed buildings and the smoking wreckage of at least one car.

    The U.S. military said in an e-mail that the only air assault it carried out last night was in the Kazamiyah neighborhood, west of Sadr City, killing 10 militants.

    Iraq's Health Ministry, which is close to the Sadrist movement, on Saturday reported at least 75 civilians have been killed and at least 500 others injured in a week of clashes and airstrikes in Sadr City and other eastern Baghdad neighborhoods.

    The U.S. military sharply disputes the claims, having said that most of those killed were militia members.

    Weapons Handed Over

    Some 40 policemen in Sadr City handed over their weapons to al-Sadr's local office, one of the policemen told The Associated Press on Saturday.

    "We can't fight our brothers in the Mahdi Army, so we came here to submit our weapons," the policeman told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

    The police in Sadr City have long been believed heavily influenced or infiltrated by Mahdi militiamen.

    AP Television News footage showed a group of about a dozen uniformed police, their faces covered with masks to shield their identity, being met by Sheik Salman al-Feraiji, al-Sadr's chief representative in Sadr City.

    Al-Feraiji greeted each policeman and gave them a copy of the Quran and an olive branch as they handed over their guns and ammunition.

    Meanwhile, mortar or rockets were again lobbed on Saturday from Shiite areas in eastern Baghdad toward the Green Zone, the fortified area where the U.S. and British embassies are located, along with much of the Iraqi government.

    The U.S. military said in an e-mail they "have no reports of serious injuries" following the incoming rounds.

    Mortars also landed in Shiite areas of eastern Baghdad, killing at least one person and injuring 12, according to police. It was not clear from where the mortars were fired.

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