Shi'ite gunmen in Baghdad ignore truce

Enlarge Photo Children look at destroyed vehicles after clashes in Baghdad's Sadr City May 13, 2008. REUTERS/Kareem... Slideshow: Day in pics: May 13 08

Tue, May 13 03:45 PM

By Tim Cocks

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A deal aimed at ending fighting in the Baghdad bastion of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr was on the verge of collapse on Tuesday after gunmen launched a spate of attacks on U.S. troops.

The agreement between the ruling Shi'ite alliance and Sadr's opposition movement in parliament to end fighting in the Sadr City slum was formally signed on Monday.

But with the ink barely dry on the 16-point pact, clashes flared overnight, raising questions over how much control the anti-American cleric has over some of the tens of thousands of gunmen who profess allegiance to him.

The U.S. military said fighting flared between its troops and militants in Sadr City overnight, where seven weeks of clashes have already killed hundreds of people.

Iraqi police said 11 people were killed and 20 wounded in clashes in the eastern Baghdad district.

They did not give precise details but the U.S. military said it had killed at least three militiamen trying to plant roadside bombs. U.S. troops came under attack numerous times with small arms fire, the military said.

A spokesman for the U.S. military in Baghdad, Lieutenant-Colonel Steven Stover, said U.S. forces only targeted militants launching attacks.

"We're not looking for a fight -- we are establishing a safe neighbourhood for Sadr City residents," Stover said. "They (the militants) are obviously not listening to any agreement."

The deal to end the fighting was announced on Saturday and welcomed by Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, whose crackdown on Shi'ite militias in late March sparked the fighting in Sadr City.

Aid agencies have warned of a humanitarian crisis in Sadr City unless a ceasefire can take hold to allow food and medicine to be the trucked into the slum, home to 2 million people.

The U.S. military blames much of the recent violence in Baghdad on rogue elements of Sadr's Mehdi Army militia.

It says these groups get weapons, money and training from neighbouring Shi'ite Iran, especially modern rockets that have been fired at the Green Zone government and diplomatic compound in Baghdad. Tehran denies the accusations.

MISSILE LAUNCHED AT U.S. AIRCRAFT

A senior U.S. military official said a surface-to-air missile was fired from eastern Baghdad at a U.S. aircraft on Saturday evening. The missile exploded harmlessly, the official said, adding it was the first fired since fighting intensified in Baghdad in late March.

He did say what type of aircraft was attacked, but the New York Times reported the missile was fired at a U.S. Apache attack helicopter. It was launched after the agreement to end fighting in Sadr City had been announced.

Maliki says operations against militias are intended to impose law and order. Sadrist officials have accused him of trying to sideline the cleric's popular mass movement before provincial elections in October.

The movement, which boycotted the last local elections in 2005, is expected to do well at the expense of other Shi'ite parties supporting Maliki, especially in the Shi'ite south.

Sadr, who is believed to be living in Iran, originally imposed a ceasefire on his Mehdi Army last August as part of attempts to clean up the organisation.

While his order held for many months, it has appeared increasingly irrelevant in recent weeks.

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