Two days of fierce fighting between gunmen loyal to Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and Iraqi police have killed 35 people and wounded 125 in the southern city of Nassiriya, a hospital doctor said on Tuesday.
The clashes erupted on Sunday night when police attacked a Sadr office in Nassiriya in an apparent response to an attack that wounded a local police commander, who residents said was linked to a powerful rival Shi’ite faction.
The British military said it had flown the head of the 10th Division of the Iraqi Army by helicopter from Basra for urgent talks with the governor of Dhi Qar province, of which Nassiriya is the capital.
”We can confirm there still seems to be sporadic outbursts of trouble,” British military spokesperson Major David Gell told Reuters from Basra, adding the governor had not asked British forces to intervene.
Iraqi police said the Mehdi Army was also in complete control of the town of Shuyukh, about 30km south-east of Nassiriya after clashes that had forced local police to withdraw.
The hospital doctor in Nassiriya, who declined to be identified, said many civilians were among the dead and wounded, including women and children.
A Nassiriya resident said heavy fighting had resumed after talks between the two sides apparently failed to secure agreement.
Residents said the feared Mehdi Army, militiamen loyal to Sadr, were out in force in parts of the oil-rich city and wanted the police to withdraw to their barracks.
The police are seen as linked to the Badr Organisation, the armed wing of the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council, a powerful bloc in the ruling Shi’ite alliance.
Nassiriya was relatively calm until recent days. Last year, Italian troops handed over security in the city to Iraqi forces.
While the mainly Shi’ite south has not experienced the level of sectarian violence that has hit Baghdad and provinces around the capital, it is riven with political tensions as various Shi’ite factions jockey for influence over the region’s huge oil reserves.
Corruption, death threats and sporadic militia gun battles have fractured the peace and risk an escalation in violence in a region that is strategically vital for Iraq’s oil exports and through which much of its essential imports must pass. — Reuters