☰

M. Continuo

Seven die in clashes in Baghdad's Sadr City


    BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Clashes between Shi'ite militiamen and security forces in Baghdad's Sadr City slum killed seven people and wounded 19 overnight, Iraqi police and hospitals said on Thursday.

    The dead were all men and the wounded included three womenand three children, they said.

    The U.S. military says fighting in the stronghold ofShi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has eased since Saturday whenSadr's opposition movement in parliament reached an agreementwith the ruling Shi'ite alliance to end the violence there.

    But sporadic clashes have continued and it is unclear howmuch control the anti-American Sadr has over some of the tensof thousands of gunmen in Iraq who profess allegiance to him.

    The U.S. military says the violence is being carried out byrogue elements of Sadr's Mehdi Army militia, which it says arearmed, trained and funded by Iran. Tehran denies the charges.

    Fighting initially flared in late March when Prime MinisterNuri al-Maliki ordered a crackdown on Shi'ite militias in thesouthern city of Basra, triggering fierce resistance from MehdiArmy fighters.

    (Reporting by Aseel Kami, writing by Tim Cocks; Editing byRobert Woodward)