surge update - Deadly Sadr City clashes rage for second day

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NEW: At least 18 killed in Sadr City clashes, U.S. airstrike, Interior Ministry says
Aide says Muqtada al-Sadr will disband militia if clerics give order, AP reports
Prime minister to ban Sadrists from politics if Mehdi Army not disbanded
Three U.S. soldiers killed Sunday brings total for Iraq war to 4,020
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Nine Iraqis were killed and 65 others wounded in clashes lasting into Monday morning as U.S. and Iraqi forces took on Shiite militia members in Baghdad's Sadr City, an Interior Ministry spokesman said.

The latest violence follows days of fierce fighting between U.S. and Iraqi forces and members of the Mehdi Army, a militia loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Sadr City is a stronghold for the Mehdi Army from where militants have fired rockets and mortars at the International Zone and American military bases, a military spokesman said.

In Baghdad's al-Amin neighborhood, another Mehdi stronghold, a U.S. airstrike killed nine people and wounded 35 others, an Interior Ministry official said.

Also Monday, The Associated Press reported an aide to al-Sadr said the cleric will heed calls to disband his Mehdi Army if ordered to do so by other leading Shiite clerics.

Twenty people were killed and 52 others wounded Sunday in fighting in Sadr City, the Interior Ministry said, though a U.S. military statement referred to a lower death toll. Watch a report from the front line in Sadr City »

It said U.S. and Iraqi forces killed 10 Shiite militants in Sadr City on Sunday, acting after militants fired rocket-propelled grenades at Iraqi soldiers patrolling Sadr City.

Three U.S. soldiers were killed and 31 others wounded in two rocket attacks Sunday afternoon in Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/04/07/iraq.sadr/index.html