United States and Iraqi forces killed 13 gunmen in clashes and air strikes overnight in the Baghdad stronghold of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who said the US would remain his enemy until the ”last drop of my blood”. Authorities eased a blockade on Saturday in the Sadr City district of eastern Baghdad that had trapped residents in the slum for two weeks.
United States forces were drawn deeper into Iraq’s four day-old crackdown on Shi’ite militants on Friday, launching air strikes in Basra for the first time and battling militants in Baghdad. The fighting has exposed a rift within the majority Shi’ite community and put pressure on Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
Mehdi Army fighters attacked police patrols in southern Baghdad, police said on Friday, further fraying a seven-month-old ceasefire called by Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr to rein in his militia. The clashes in Baghdad’s Shurta district, which started late on Thursday and continued into Friday morning, follow outbreaks of violence in the southern Iraqi city of Kut.