Hundreds Flee Fight in Shiite Stronghold

[Hissyspit]

Source: Associated Press

Hundreds Flee Fight in Shiite Stronghold
2008-04-07 18:20:56
By ROBERT H. REID Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD (AP) — Hundreds of people fled fighting in Baghdad's Shiite militia stronghold Monday as U.S. and Iraqi forces increased pressure on anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who faces an ultimatum to either disband his Mahdi Army or give up politics.

Al-Sadr's aides said he would only dismantle the powerful militia if ordered by top Shiite clerics — who have remained silent throughout the increasingly dangerous showdown.

Although al-Sadr holds considerable influence through the Mahdi fighters — estimated at up to 60,000 — political exile for his movement would shatter his dream of becoming the major power broker among the country's Shiite majority.

Gunbattles raged around the sprawling Sadr City district that serves as the Baghdad nerve center of the Mahdi militia, which has been under siege since last week by about 1,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops. Police said at least 14 civilians were killed in clashes Monday in the Baghdad area, nine of them in Sadr City. Frightened families poured out of Sadr City — some carrying their belongings in sacks or piled in pushcarts.

Read more: http://myembarq.com/news/news_reader.php?storyid=15955459&feedid=14

[struggle4progress]

1. Fighting intensifies in Iraq's capital

Three U.S. troops are killed in Baghdad on the eve of Gen. David H. Petraeus' testimony before Congress.
By Tina Susman, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
9:25 PM PDT, April 7, 2008

BAGHDAD -- Three more U.S. troops were killed Monday as Iraqis struggled to bury their dead amid fierce street battles between Shiite Muslim militias and Iraqi and American soldiers in the nation's capital.

n one of the most intense days of fighting here involving U.S. troops in recent months, American helicopters fired at least four Hellfire missiles and an Air Force jet dropped a bomb on a suspected militia target. Rockets and missiles launched from militia strongholds pounded U.S. bases around the city, where U.S. troops also came under fire from small arms and rocket-propelled grenades. Targets included the Green Zone, where the U.S. Embassy and most Iraqi government buildings are located.

The latest American casualties brought to nine the number of U.S. combat deaths in Iraq since Sunday. At least 18 U.S. service members have been killed in and around Baghdad since March 25, when fighting spread to the capital after Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's decision to launch an offensive against Shiite militiamen in the southern city of Basra ...

The fighting in Baghdad has been some of the most intense since January 2007, when American helicopters and warplanes blasted central Baghdad's Haifa Street in an offensive against Sunni Arab insurgents. That month, President Bush announced the deployment of 21,500 extra Americans to quell Iraq's violence and give Iraqi leaders time to mend the political rivalries seen as the root of the fighting. An additional 7,000 support troops were later added ...

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraq8apr08,1,2511411.story