The commander of US forces in Iraq on Saturday called for a swift end to the resistance led by Shia leader Moqtada Sadr as more than 40 Iraqis were killed during a 24-hour period. Lt Gen Ricardo Sanchez said the uprising had to be ended "fairly quickly" after more than a month of fighting between Sadr's followers and occupying troops across central and southern Iraq. The US-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) described the fighting in the towns of Nasiriyah and Amara as a "minor" uprising that had been quelled. The worst of the latest fighting was near the southern city of Amara on Friday. British troops there claimed killing 20 militiamen after two vehicles were ambushed. Two British soldiers were wounded in the attack when their two Land Rovers came under fire in a series of gun and grenade attacks but were able to drive to safety after reinforcements were called in.
US troops claimed killing another 14 militiamen in a series of clashes in Sadr City, a predominantly Shia locality of the capital where Sadr's Mehdi Army has battled occupying forces for weeks. In Karbala, Moqtada Sadr's militia clashed with US forces for a fourth straight day, losing four fighters, as soldiers using loudspeakers urged people to leave the area. Another three civilians were killed and seven wounded in fighting between the Mehdi Army and the US-trained Iraqi Civil Defence Corps (ICDC) in Karbala, medics said. An ICDC patrol came under attack 50 metres from the shrines of Hazrat Imam Hussein and Hazrat Imam Abbas in the city centre, witnesses said. |