By Wisam Mohammed and Tim Cocks
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Clashes broke out between securityforces and Shi'ite gunmen in Baghdad overnight and onWednesday, police said, killing seven people and putting morestrain on a deal to end nearly two months of fighting.
Despite the fresh violence, residents in the easternBaghdad stronghold of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr andthe U.S. military said it was calmer there on Tuesday nightcompared to recent weeks, indicating that fighting could beeasing.
At least 28 people were wounded in clashes betweenU.S.-backed Iraqi security forces and militiamen claimingallegiance to Sadr, police and hospital sources said.
Police said gunmen fought security forces in the cleric'seastern Baghdad bastion of Sadr City overnight in fighting thatkilled five people and wounded 22 in the crowded slum. Fightingalso broke out in western Baghdad's Shula district, killing twoand wounding six, police said.
Heavy automatic weapon fire echoed through the streets ofShula, also a stronghold of Sadr's Mehdi Army, on Wednesday.U.S. Apache attack helicopters hovered overhead while shopswere closed and residents stayed indoors.
Iraq's ruling Shi'ite alliance and Sadr's oppositionmovement in parliament reached an agreement on Saturday to endfighting in Sadr City that has killed hundreds of people.
A senior political aide to Sadr has urged patience with thetruce, saying it might take time to have effect. But it remainsclear how much control Sadr has over some of the tens ofthousands of gunmen who profess allegiance to him.
Fighting flared in late March when Prime Minister Nurial-Maliki, himself a Shi'ite, ordered a crackdown againstShi'ite militias in Baghdad and the southern city of Basra.
A spokesman for U.S. forces in Baghdad, Lieutenant-ColonelSteven Stover, said Sadr City appeared to be more peaceful.
"According to ... soldiers on the ground it was relativelyquiet (overnight)," he said, adding the only incident he knewof was a U.S. air strike on three men planting a roadside bomb.The missile killed two of them, he said.
"We welcome the reduced levels of violence," Stover said.
Mudhafar Nuri, a 35-year-old labourer who lives in the SadrCity slum, welcomed the calmer conditions.
"Last night was a quiet one. This is the first time we havewitnessed such calm, without any bombardment," he said.
Salam Nassir, a member of the Mehdi Army, said his fightershad been told not to hinder Iraqi army operations.
"We received orders from the Sadr offices not to obstructthe job of the forces no matter what they do to us. But theIraqi army should be more professional so people will cooperatewith them," he said.
Maliki says the operations against militias are intended toimpose law and order. Sadrist officials have accused him oftrying to sideline the cleric's popular mass movement beforeprovincial elections in October.
(Additional reporting by Waleed Ibrahim)
(Editing by Richard Balmforth)
