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Fighting rages on in Baghdads Sadr City
Armed Iraqi men fired mortars at a police station in the Baghdad slum of Sadr City, where witnesses said a US military vehicle had just been hit by a rocket-propelled grenade Saturday afternoon. Armed men covered the streets and residents shuttered themselves inside in the battle-zone neighborhood where US troops regularly tangle with armed supporters of rebel cleric Moqtada Sadr. A militiaman said Sadr`s people were angry that US soldiers had hauled cement barriers in front of a police station and thought it signaled they would not leave the district anytime soon. US troops were positioned inside the police station. Mohammed Mijthab, an official from Sadr General hospital, said three Iraqi civilians were killed and three others wounded in fighting overnight. The military said soldiers killed several assailants early Saturday after their convoy was attacked in the Shiite slum. "US soldiers fired on a group of individuals armed with rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) launchers as they ignited their vehicle near a police station in Sadr City around 5:00 am (0100 GMT)," a spokeswoman said earlier. "Several of the individuals were killed. The remainder fled the area. There were no reports of coalition or Iraqi police casualties," she added. It was not clear who was responsible for the attacks, but the slums are a smoldering bastion of anti-US sentiment where troops have regularly clashed with Sadr`s Mehdi Army militia since April. On Friday, five US soldiers were killed when their convoy came under rocket-propelled grenade fire, forcing it to stop before a bomb exploded, on the edge of the district. Tensions between US forces and the militia have remained high despite a fledgling ceasefire between the sides in Shiite holy cities of Najaf and Kufa. Posted by: Fred 2004-06-07 |
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