At least 30 people were killed or wounded in running gun battles on Friday between Shi’ite militiamen and United States-Iraqi forces in Baghdad’s sprawling Shi’ite slum district of Sadr City, the US military and security sources said.
The US military said the fighting resulted in the capture of a ”high-level insurgent leader” behind attacks on Iraqi and US-led forces, but did not name him.
”An estimated 30 to 40 enemy fighters were killed or wounded in the 43-minute fire fight,” it said.
Sources in the defence and interior ministries said the clashes between US-led forces and firebrand Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mehdi army lasted for four hours and left at least nine people dead and 30 wounded.
The US military said Iraqi forces returned defensive fire when they were attacked with small arms and rocket propelled grenades from the roof of a building where the insurgent leader was detained.
The captured insurgent ”and his followers have kidnapped, tortured and murdered Iraqi citizens”, the military said, adding that he was ”also involved in the transfer of weapons from Syria into Iraq”.
Sahib al-Amiri, an official in Sadr’s movement, said the US forces had detained a Shi’ite imam from the district, Adnan al-Oneibi.
”We strongly condemn the attacks of US and Iraqi forces, and we call on the Iraqi government to protect its citizens against these kinds of attacks,” Amiri said.
The militias are seen as an increasing threat to the stability of the country and Sunni politicians especially have called for them to be dismantled, accusing them of being involved in kidnapping and killings of Sunni Arabs.
A Defence Ministry official said the US-led operation began at 2am local time in the impoverished Shi’ite stronghold, which has a population of about two million. The force pulled out by 6am.
”The situation is tense and the Mehdi Army is deploying in the streets,” said the official, adding that the US raid targeted several individuals believed to be involved in kidnapping rings.
Since battling Mehdi Army fighters in Sadr City and the southern shrine city of Najaf from April to August 2004, US forces have largely avoided confrontation with the powerful Shi’ite militia.
In February and March, however, US-led forces carried out similar raids against suspects involved in kidnapping rings living in eastern Baghdad, which resulted in clashes with the local Shi’ite militias.
Over the past month there has been a series of high-profile kidnappings, often involving the seizure of dozens of people in broad daylight by men wearing uniforms of Iraqi security forces.
Last Saturday, Sunni female MP Taiseer al-Mashhadani and several of her bodyguards were abducted and on Tuesday a deputy minister and his 19 bodyguards were kidnapped and held for 10 hours before being released.
In other violence, two Iraqis were killed and four police officers wounded in clashes when insurgents attacked the Shi’ite mosque in Salman Pak, south of Baghdad, and the nearby national police headquarters, the US military said.
Meanwhile, a former US soldier in Iraq pleaded not guilty to raping and murdering an Iraqi woman after allegedly killing three of her relatives, charges President George Bush said merited ”absolute justice”.
Steve Green (21) stood passively in court with his hands in front of him on Thursday as his lawyer entered the plea on charges of raping and murdering an Iraqi woman and members of her family in the town of Mahmudiyah, south of Baghdad.
In an interview with CNN Thursday, Bush said in an apparent reference to Green that he was facing ”very serious charges and what the Iraqis must understand is that we will deal with these in a very transparent, up-front way”.
Bush’s assurance came as Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki called for the elimination of the blanket immunity enjoyed so far by foreign troops from Iraqi law.
He has also demanded an independent Iraqi probe or a joint investigation into the allegations against US soldiers. — AFP
