Fierce overnight clashes between Shia militiamen and the United States and Iraqi forces in Baghdad’s Sadr City killed at least eight people, including two children, a local medic told AFP on Saturday.The firefight in Sadr City erupted at around 8:00pm (1700 GMT) on Friday and continued until 8:00am on Saturday, the medic said. “Those killed include two
Witnesses told AFP that the clashes broke out as security forces were putting up concrete barriers in the southern section of the sprawling district – bastion of anti-American Shia cleric Moqtada Al Sadr – in east Baghdad.
American forces began building a concrete wall there last week, in a bid to prevent rocket and mortar attacks on the heavily fortified Green Zone, seat of the Iraqi government and the US embassy. But the construction project has angered local followers of Al Sadr.
Militiamen from his Mehdi Army and security forces have been fighting since March 25 when Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki ordered a crackdown on Shia militiamen in the southern city of Basra.