One Iraqi Killed in Clashes in Baghdad Sadr City

Fri Jun 11, 2004 07:30 AM ET

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - One Iraqi fighter was killed and several more wounded in sporadic clashes between Iraqi fighters and U.S. forces in a Shi'i suburb of Baghdad, an official of rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's group said on Friday.

Militiamen loyal to Sadr fired automatic weapons and lobbed hand grenades at U.S. forces, which responded by sending helicopters to fire at targets in the sprawling Sadr City slum early on Friday, Reuters television footage showed.

"One of our members was killed while preparing to fire at the Americans," the official said, adding he had been killed during clashes overnight on Thursday.

Sporadic gunfights often break out in Sadr City, home to more than a million Shi'i Muslims and Sadr's main power base in Baghdad.

Najaf was largely calm after clashes between Sadr's Mehdi Army militia and Iraqi police on Thursday, although Friday prayers were canceled after militiamen loyal to Sadr scuffled with followers of a rival Shi'i cleric who had been due to give the sermon, witnesses said.

It was not clear if anyone was hurt.

Residents say the Mehdi Army has tried to direct worshippers in the past to away from attending sermons by rival preachers in the holy city.

Five people were killed on Thursday when police fought Sadr's fighters, despite a truce agreed last week by militiamen and U.S. forces aimed at ending weeks of clashes in the town.

U.S. Probes Killing of Iraqi by American Soldier

Fri Jun 11, 2004 09:06 AM ET

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The U.S. military is investigating the killing by an American soldier of an Iraqi man who was accused of boasting about murdering another U.S. soldier, the army said on Friday.

The man was killed during a May 17 raid by U.S. troops on his Baghdad home when he tried to grab the weapon of one of the soldiers who then shot him dead, according to a statement issued by the U.S. military.

"According to a source, the Iraqi bragged to his neighbors about murdering a 1st Cavalry soldier at a checkpoint," the statement said. "This information subsequently led to a raid by Coalition forces."

Last week, the army said it had opened a criminal investigation into a U.S. soldier who fatally shot at close range an Iraqi man who already was grievously wounded in a vehicle after a high-speed chase near the city of Kufa.

Earth, a planet hungry for peace

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank, like a Python (Alquds, 1/25/03.

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