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Firefights every night in Sadr
04/06/2004 12:02 - (SA)
Baghdad - US troops have fought with militiamen loyal to radical cleric Moqtada Sadr early on Friday following overnight clashes in the Baghdad Shiite neighbourhood of Sadr City, witnesses said.
Residents reported a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) exploding at about 09:00 (05:00 GMT).
An AFP correspondent heard gunshots in the al-Karama neighbourhood and saw militiamen armed with Kalashnikovs and RPGs on the streets.
Residents of Sadr City, which has a population of about two million people, said the fighting had started at around 22:00 (16:00 GMT) on Thursday.
The US military reported an attack on an Iraqi police station in the neighbourhood early on Friday, but had no further information on clashes.
"At midnight (20:00 GMT Thursday), an Iraqi police station was attacked," said US army Captain Brian O'Malley.
"We had three US soldiers with minor wounds, and the enemy had some killed in action. It's a small number," he said declining to be more specific.
O'Malley also declined to identify the assailants as members of Sadr's Mehdi Army militia, despite repeated clashes with militiamen in the neighbourhood since the cleric began his uprising in early April. Two militiamen were killed in similar clashes on Wednesday.
"It's about nightly contact between the Americans and the enemy," O'Malley said of the fighting in Sadr City.
Despite the battles, Sadr aides announced early on Friday tentative plans to reduce the presence of their forces in the Shiite shrine city of Najaf and the surrounding area in a bid to wind down the conflict.
Previous truce efforts have collapsed amid persistent violence.
Sadr launched his uprising in the first week of April after US overseer Paul Bremer suspended one of his newspapers on charges of inciting violence and US troops arrested one of his key aides.
US commanders also announced that they intended to enforce a warrant for Sadr's arrest in connection with the murder of a pro-US cleric in April last year.
- AFP
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