Fighting continues in Basra


Dozens of Iraqis have reportedly been killed and hundreds more injured in the violence [Reuters]




Heavy fighting has continued between US-backed Iraqi security forces and fighters from the Mahdi Army of Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr as military operations in Basra entered a third day.

The clashes on Thursday came in defiance of a Friday deadline by Nuri al-Maliki for armed groups to give up their weapons or face "severe penalties".




The Iraqi prime minister was in Basra personally overseeing the operation that has sparked violence across the country, leaving more than 50 people dead and another 300 injured.

A fire also raged near Basra after a bomb exploded underneath an oil pipeline, Iraqi officials said.






Followers of al-Sadr, meanwhile, were staging protests in Baghdad to denounce al-Maliki's Basra crackdown.

In the capital's impoverished Sadr City district, demonstrators shouted: "Maliki you are a coward! Maliki is an American agent! Leave the government, Maliki! How can you strike Basra?"

Protests were also planned in the southern city of Amara. Al-Sadr has threatened to launch a civil revolt if attacks against his followers are not halted.

Crisis talks

The Iraqi government was holding talks with aides of al-Sadr in Najaf on Thursday to try to end the crisis, Liqa Ali Yassin, a member of Sadr's 32-member parliamentary bloc, said.

Your Views
What are the reasons for the surge of violence in Iraq?

Send us your views

On Wednesday, al-Sadr had demanded that al-Maliki leave Basra and send a parliamentary delegation for talks on resolving the crisis.

The violence began on Tuesday, when Iraqi troops launched operations to rid Basra of "lawless gangs".

Fighting then spread to al-Sadr's stronghold in Baghdad and other cities.

Iraqi sources told Al Jazeera that about 60 civilians were killed in a US air strike on the city of southern city of Hilla, although there were conflicting reports.

Iraqi security sources said that 29 people were killed.

The Basra operation extended north to Kut, where six members of the Iraqi security forces and six civilians were reportedly killed as troops fought militia street by street.

To the west in Diwaniyah, Shia fighters attacked a police station, killing two people.

In Tikrit, at least seven civilians were reportedly killed and nine others were wounded in US air strikes that destroyed two homes, according to Al Jazeera sources.

Three US employees were also seriously injured as rocket attacks pounded the fortified Green Zone in Baghdad.

Khalaf Haloul, a resident of Amara, told Al Jazeera by telephone that clashes between Iraqi forces and the Mahdi army were underway there as well.

He said mortars and rockets could be heard across the city. Mahdi Army fighters had deployed in all areas of the city in anticipation of military attacks, he said.

Convoy attack

Colonel Karim al-Zaidi, a police spokesman, said the convoy of Major General Abdul Jalil Khalaf, Basra's police chief, was hit by a suicide car bomber around 1am on Thursday [22:00 GMT Wednesday] as it passed through the streets of the city.

He said: "Three policemen were killed in the attack," adding that Khalaf was unharmed.

In video

The internal sectarian conflict in Iraq


Residents said the streets of the oil-rich city of 1.5 million people were deserted on Thursday and that shops and businesses were shut.

Before the latest fighting, Basra had become the battlefield for a turf war between the Mahdi Army and two rival Shia factions - the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC) of Abdel Aziz al-Hakim and the smaller Fadhila party.

The three factions are fighting to control the huge oil revenues generated in the province, which was transferred to Iraqi control by the British military in December.

Sadr's powerful movement called protest rallies for Thursday "to express no confidence in the Maliki government" in the wake of the Basra assault.

US military spokesman Major General Kevin Bergner told a news conference on Wednesday that 2,000 extra Iraqi security forces had been sent to Basra for the operation.

He said it was aimed at improving security in the city ahead of provincial elections in October.

"The prime minister's assessement is that without this operation there will not be any hopeful prospect of improving security in Basra," Bergner said.

Al Jazeera's James Bays, reporting from Baghdad, said the crackdown in Basra was meant as a show of strength by al-Maliki.

He said: "I think the prime minister is trying to put his stamp in this operation. No one expected that he would go to Basra."

"Al-Maliki wants to show that he is in control because in the past, he was seen as a weak, impotent leader