15 gunmen killed in Baghdad

15 gunmen killed in Baghdad	23.04.2008
US troops say they have killed 15 gunmen in Shi`ite areas of Baghdad, where fighting has raged for weeks between militiamen loyal to Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and security forces. In a statement, the US military said ground forces and aircraft had been involved in several attacks. The first began around dusk on Tuesday, the military said. One hospital in Sadr City, the Shi`ite cleric`s bastion in eastern Baghdad, said it had received five bodies overnight from clashes and air strikes. It said 22 people had been wounded. Police said it was one of the heaviest nights of clashes in weeks in the slum, home to two million people. Hundreds have died in and around Sadr City since Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, himself a Shi`ite, launched a crackdown on the cleric`s Mehdi Army militia last month. Sadr has demanded a withdrawal of US troops from Iraq and threatened over the weekend to wage "open war`` if Maliki did not call off the campaign against his fighters in Baghdad, the southern oil hub of Basra and other Shi`ite areas. Since Sadr issued his threat on Saturday - which threatens to unravel months of security gains in Iraq - the US military says it has killed around 65 militiamen in Sadr City and other Shi`ite parts of Baghdad. The military said in one of the incidents overnight, troops were attacked with rocket-propelled grenades after a roadside bomb exploded. Soldiers returned fire, killing six gunmen. In another incident, it said an unmanned drone spotted two militants putting a mortar tube into a vehicle and then driving off. The drone fired a Hellfire missile, killing the two. "Along with our Iraqi security forces partners, we are targeting individual terrorists, criminal networks, and anyone involved in violent crimes against the Iraqi people,`` said US Lieutenant-Colonel Steven Stover, a spokesman in Baghdad. Maliki has refused to back down in his confrontation with Sadr. The cleric backed the prime minister`s rise to power in 2006 but has since split with him over Maliki`s refusal to set a timetable for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. At a meeting of foreign ministers from the region and Western powers in Kuwait on Tuesday, Maliki noted he had strong political support for his campaign to disarm militias. Maliki has threatened to bar Sadr`s movement from provincial elections on October 1 if he does not disband the Mehdi Army. Sadr`s mass movement, which boycotted the last local elections in 2005, is expected to perform well at the expense of parties that backed Maliki, especially in the Shi`ite south. Share this article Digg this Post to del.icio.us Post to Newsvine Post to Facebook Add to kwoff
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