[osint] Clashes in Iraq’s Sadr City kill 11

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080513/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_080510181430;_ylt=Ak
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Officials: Clashes in Iraq’s Sadr City kill 11

By SELCAN HACAOGLU, Associated Press Writer Tue May 13, 6:24 AM ET

BAGHDAD - A fragile cease-fire failed to stop fighting in Baghdad’s Sadr
City where the latest clashes between Shiite extremists and U.S.-backed
Iraqi forces killed 11 men and wounded 19, Iraqi hospital officials said
Tuesday.

The U.S. military said that it responded to several attacks by militants
with precision strikes, but only confirmed killing three militants. Two of
the militants were killed in a Hellfire missile strike by an attack
aircraft, according to the military. U.S. soldiers also suppressed "enemy
fire" in four other clashes with tanks and attack aircraft, the military
said.

The clashes erupted late Monday, just hours after Iraq’s main Shiite
political bloc and supporters of firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr signed a
cease-fire with the hope of ending seven-weeks of fighting that has left
hundreds of people dead in the capital.

It was not immediately clear if the those killed in the clashes, which
escalated early Tuesday, were militants or civilians. There were women and
children among the wounded, said hospital officials, speaking on condition
of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

The military said Tuesday that militants staged several attacks on U.S.
soldiers in Sadr City and elsewhere, but there were no troop casualties.

"They are obviously not listening to any agreement," Lt. Col. Steve Stover,
a military spokesman for American troops in Baghdad, said. He accused what
he called "special groups" of launching attacks on U.S. and Iraqi troops.

The U.S. military has alleged that most Shiite extremists fighting Iraqi and
U.S. forces in Sadr City have splintered away from al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army, and
the cleric’s level of influence over those rogue groups is unclear. Many are
thought to be trained and armed by Iranian forces. Iran denies the
allegations.

Stover also blamed the so-called "special groups" for a failed
surface-to-air missile attack on a helicopter gunship over Sadr City on
Saturday. The missile was fired from an unknown location in eastern Baghdad
but missed the target, he said.

The missile harmlessly exploded, and the rocket body landed in the Azamiyah
neighborhood, where it was recovered by allied Sunni fighters and handed
over to the U.S. military.

The missile attack came a day before the four-day cease-fire went into
effect Sunday. But there has been sporadic fighting since then.

The talks between al-Sadr’s representatives and the United Iraqi Alliance
over the details of the truce were not finished until Monday. The deal
allows Iraqi forces to take over security in the militia stronghold of Sadr
City, a Shiite slum that is home to about 2.5 million people, on Wednesday.

The clashes first erupted in late March when Iraqi forces launched a
crackdown in the southern city of Basra and Shiite extremists began firing
rockets and mortars from Sadr City toward the heavily fortified Green Zone,
which houses the Iraqi government and Western embassies.

"Any attack against residential areas, government offices and the Green Zone
are prohibited from Sadr City or from another area," the cease-fire
agreement said.

Under the compromise deal, Iraqi forces will try to refrain from seeking
American help to restore order. The U.S. military officials on Sunday said
they were supporting the government forces and would take their lead.

The Sadrists rejected calls by Prime Mini

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