105 killed as fighting rages thru’ Iraq cities

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At least 105 people have been killed in Iraq since fierce clashes between Shia militants and security forces broke out three days ago, according to an AFP tally based on reports by security officials.

Hundreds of people have been wounded in the battles.

Fighting has raged in four cities since Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Tuesday ordered the security forces to raid strongholds of Shia militiamen loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in the southern port city of Basra.

At least 23 people have been killed in Basra, which was yesterday rocked for a third straight day by fighting, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross and Iraqi security officials.

Fighting spread to the central city of Kut, where 44 people — 40 gunmen and four policemen — died, according to local police chief Abdul Hanin al-Amara.

Another 30 people were killed in clashes between Shia gunmen and Iraqi and US forces in Sadr City, the Baghdad stronghold of the Mahdi Army militia, Iraqi security officials said.

Eight people have been killed in the province of Babel, south of the capital, Iraqi and US officials said.

In Baghdad, meanwhile, Sadr’s followers staged noisy protests against the crackdown in Basra, demanding the resignation of Maliki, who is overseeing the military operations.

The police chief of Kut, Abdul Hanin al-Amara, told AFP that among those killed during a military assault that began around midnight were four policemen and 40 Shia militiamen.

“The security forces launched an operation at around midnight (2100 GMT Wednesday) to take back areas under the control of Shia gunmen,” Amara said in Kut, 175 kilometres (110 miles) southeast of Baghdad.

“At least 40 gunmen and four policemen were killed. Around 75 people were wounded. Police have now imposed full control on these neighbourhoods.”

The offensive followed days of sporadic clashes in Kut, between militiamen and Iraqi troops, during which according to witnesses gunmen ran through the streets, burning shops and public buildings.

An AFP correspondent in Basra, meanwhile, said heavy fighting erupted early yesterday in the central Jumhuriyah neighbourhood, a Mahdi Army bastion, which was rocked by rocket propelled grenade, mortar and small arms fire.

Police spokesman Colonel Karim al-Zaidi said the convoy of Basra police chief Major General Abdul Jalil Khalaf was hit by a suicide car bomber around 1:00 am yesterday as it passed through the streets of Basra.

The port city was covered in a thick black pall of smoke yesterday from a blast which damaged an oil pipeline transporting crude from the Zubair oil field to the Al-Faw storage facility.

Samir al-Maksusi, spokesman for the Southern Oil Company, said the pipeline had been blown up with a bomb. “The blast directly affects the exports,” he said.

In the central city of Hilla, where Iraqi forces have been battling Shia militiamen, four policemen were killed in a bomb attack, police said.

Meanwhile in Sadr City, an impoverished Shiite district of around two million people in east Baghdad, crowds gathered from 10:00 am (0700 GMT) outside the Sadr office to yell slogans against the prime minister.

“Maliki you are a coward! Maliki is an American agent! Leave the government, Maliki! How can you strike Basra?” the crowd chanted.

In the Kadhimiyah neighbourhood of north Baghdad, followers of Sadr carried a coffin covered in red fabric with an attached photograph of Maliki set against the background of an American flag.

Officials said the death toll from clashes in Sadr City Tuesday and Wednesday had risen to 30.

The Sadr movement had announced on Wednesday it would hold protest rallies against Maliki in Baghdad and the southern city of Amara, while Sadr has threatened to launch a civil revolt if the attacks against the militiamen are not halted.

On Wednesday, Maliki gave militiamen battling his forces in Basra 72 hours to lay down their arms and warned that those failing to do so would face the full brunt of the law.

Basra has become the theatre of a bitter turf war between the Mahdi Army and two rival Shiite factions — the powerful Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC) of Abdel Aziz al-Hakim and the smaller Fadhila party.

An aide to Sadr said representatives of the Iraqi government and a Sadrist official held preliminary talks by telephone yesterday in a bid to end the crisis in Basra.

Iraqi and US embassy officials, meanwhile said insurgents fired rockets into the heavily fortified Baghdad Green Zone causing a major blaze.

The Green Zone, which was once Saddam Hussein’s presidential compound, has been repeatedly hit by rocket and mortar fire in recent days, wounding at least three Americans.

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