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Clashes heat up, Iraqi civilians die Press
TV Scores of Iraqis have been killed as the US and Iraqi troops clash with the followers of Moqtada Sadr in different parts of the country. The deadliest clashes were in Basra, where at least 47 people were killed and 223 wounded in the two days of fighting, hospital officials said. The clashes in Baghdad also left 39 dead and dozens wounded - 23 of those killed were in Sadr City. A mortar barrage struck homes amid clashes in the Shia city of Kut, southeast of Baghdad, killing 15 civilians, including a woman and her grandson, according to police.
(Article continues below) Fighting also broke out between elements of Sadr's Mahdi Army and Iraqi troops backed by US helicopters in Hilla, 100 km south of Baghdad, where more than 60 gunmen were killed on Wednesday, Aswat al-Iraq (VOI) reported. Hundreds of Shias took to the streets in Sadr City and Karbala on Wednesday, demanding the government stop military operations in Basra and other cities and withdraw all security forces. The Sadrists are angry over recent raids and detentions, saying US and Iraqi forces have taken advantage of the August cease-fire to crack down on the movement. They have accused rival Shia parties, which control Iraqi security forces, of engineering the arrests to prevent them from mounting an effective campaign after the Iraqi parliament agreed in February to hold provincial elections by the fall. Iraqi officials and the US military insist the fight is not against al-Sadr's movement but its breakaway factions.
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