Baghdad: Fierce fighting between the US military and militants in Baghdad's Shiite bastion of Sadr City killed at least 10 people and wounded more than 40 early today, medics and security officials said.
The clashes broke out as US forces carried out a raid in the impoverished neighbourhood which is loyal to anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, security officials said. Medics at Sadr City's Imam Ali Hospital and Sadr Hospital confirmed the casualties and said the dead included a child and a girl, without elaborating. The US military also confirmed the operation but denied that any civilians had been killed.
"Coalition forces did conduct early morning operations in the Sadr City area, targeting criminals believed to be responsible for the kidnapping of Coalition soldiers in November 2006 and May 2007," the military told AFP in an email. The military did not give any casualty figures, however. US military spokesman Major Winfield S Danielson told AFP he did not have details on the "number of terrorists" killed. "But I can say that we don't have any evidence of any civilians killed or wounded. Coalition forces only engage hostile threats and make very effort to protect innocent civilians." The US military has regularly targeted Sadr's Mahdi Army militia which it accuses of being involved in sectarian killings of Iraqi Sunni Arabs.
