BAGHDAD (AFP) — Clashes between Shiite militiamen and security forces have killed more than 900 people in Baghdad's Sadr City, Iraqi officials said Wednesday, as Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki vowed to press the offensive to its conclusion.
The latest death toll from the Sadr City fighting that began late last month is set to make April the deadliest month this year, denting US and Iraqi government claims of improved security.
"There were 925 martyrs in Sadr City and 2,605 others have been wounded," Tehseen Sheikhly, spokesman for the government's Baghdad security plan, told reporters.
Fierce clashes between US and Iraqi forces and Shiite militiamen, mostly from the Mahdi Army of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, erupted after Maliki ordered a crackdown on militias in the main southern city of Basra on March 25.
The crackdown triggered an eruption of violence across Shiite areas of Iraq, particularly Sadr City, Baghdad's most populous Shiite district and a bastion of the Mahdi Army.
The clashes have inflicted heavy toll on US forces. At least 20 soldiers have been killed in Baghdad in April, a significant number of them in and around Sadr City.
Already this month, the US military has lost 46 soldiers across Iraq, making it its deadliest month since last September when it lost 65 troops, according to an AFP tally based on the website of the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count, icasualties.org.
Iraqi casualty figures for April from government ministries were not expected before Thursday but in March at least 1,082 people were killed, according to the figures.
Those losses, contrasting with the 721 recorded in February, confirmed a resurgence in bloodshed from the falling figures through the second half of last year.
The US military has vowed to press its fight against the "criminals" in Sadr City in the face of persistent rocket and mortar fire against the heavily fortified Green Zone compound that houses the Iraqi government and US embassy.
Sheikhly insisted that the joint offensive by US and Iraqi government troops "was not targeting any political party or group but armed groups."
On Wednesday, Maliki accused the militiamen of using civilians as "human shields" while fighting the security forces.
"Criminals and lawless gangs are using human shields in Sadr City ... They are following the steps of the Baathist regime," Maliki told a press conference.
"They are trying to gain sympathy but they are using the lies and the values of the former regime."
The US military says that gunmen have been firing at troops from rooftops, alleways and houses resulting in firefights in which civilians are often killed.
Maliki vowed to disband the Mahdi Army as well as Sunni insurgent groups, particularly Al-Qaeda.
"We will not allow scavengers in Iraq. The suffering will not be long in Sadr City. We will save our brothers," he said.
The premier accused the militias of forcing Sadr City residents to stay at home out of fear. "I do not know how those people use the (Shiite religious) names we respect like Mahdi and Sadr," he said.
Maliki was alluding to Moqtada's father Grand Ayatollah Mohamed Sadeq al-Sadr, a revered Shiite spiritual leader before his assassination, as well as the Imam al-Mahdi, or Hidden Imam, a central figure in the faith.
- www.icasualties.org: Iraq Coalition Casualty Count
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