US warplanes bomb Sadr City
2008-04-21 12:04
Baghdad - US warplanes dropped bombs overnight in the east Baghdad district of Sadr City where Shi'ite militiamen are battling security forces, residents said on Monday, as the American military reported another five people killed in the embattled township.
Residents said low flying jets dropped bombs in sectors 22 and 24 of Sadr City, stronghold of the Mahdi Army militia of Shi'ite radical leader Moqtada al-Sadr, around midnight (21:00 GMT on Sunday).
About two hours later, according to witnesses, helicopters fired missiles at four targets in Sadr City, where hundreds of people have died since Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered a crackdown on militias across Iraq in late March.
The US military has not immediately confirmed overnight air strikes but said four people were killed on Sunday afternoon in Sadr City by Hellfire missiles fired from drones when they were readying to fire off rockets.
It said another gunman was killed and two wounded when they attacked a military observation post in Sadr City and US troops returned fire.
On Saturday, Sadr threatened to declare "open war" if the crackdown by Iraqi and US forces against his loyalists is not halted.
The US military threatened to strike back if Sadr wages war.
Streets turned into a battleground
"If Sadr and Jaish al-Mahdi (Mahdi Army) become very aggressive, we've got enough combat power to take the fight to the enemy," said Major General Rick Lynch, commander of US forces in central Iraq.
The US military claims that "Special Groups", many of them from Sadr's feared Mahdi Army militia, are being trained by Iranian covert agents to fight American forces in Iraq.
"Iranian-supported Special Group Criminals are turning the streets of Baghdad into a battleground," US spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Steven Stover told AFP.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was scathing of Sadr's latest pronouncements.
"It's been very difficult to get a read of what his motivations are and what his intentions are," Rice said during a surprise visit to Baghdad on Sunday.
"I know he's living in Iran. I guess it's all-out war for everybody but him. His followers can go to their deaths and he will still be living in Iran. I don't know how seriously to take him or not."
Sadr, meanwhile, denounced Rice's visit to Iraq.
"We demand that such visits of terrorist occupiers to our holy land be stopped," he said in a statement late on Sunday.