Sadr condemns interim government's US ties

The Shiite leader called on the Interim Government to distance itself from the United States.

He said his heart had been "filled with wrath" when Iraq's interim president shook the hand of US President George W Bush and he told his followers that while the US has previously installed rulers in secret, it is now doing so in public.

Sadr has withdrawn many of his Mehdi army fighters from Kufah and the nearby holy city, Najaf, after months of bloody fighting with US and Iraqi forces.

Emergency laws

Meanwhile, Iraq's interim Justice Minister Malik Dohan says his government is considering imposing emergency laws.

Mr Dohan says the Interim Government is considering the emergency measures but he has not detailed what they will be.

He says the move could be based on a law introduced by Saddam Hussein's regime.

Iraq is confronting a surge in violence in the lead up to the transition to sovereignty at the end of the month.

US forces came under attack near Baquba, north-east of Baghdad, and killed a number of people in the gun battle that followed.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200406/s1135602.htm

BAGHDAD (AFP) -- Around 20 Iraqi insurgents were killed or wounded in a day of clashes with U.S. soldiers in the Baghdad Shiite slum of Sadr City earlier in the week, the U.S. military said on Saturday.

"A number of patrols around Sadr City were ambushed by small arms fire and RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades), it went on throughout the day," said a U.S. military spokesman, referring to the fighting that raged on Thursday.

"Around about 20 were killed or wounded," he told AFP.

Small, armed bands attacked the U.S. patrols as they went about their work in Sadr City, a packed neighborhood of around two million people, which is named after the father of firebrand cleric Moqtada Sadr, who was killed by Saddam Hussein's agents in 1999.

"We rendered the teams ineffective," said the spokesman, though he declined to give an exact breakdown of the dead and injured.

"There were no coalition casualties or damage to our equipment," he added.

Sporadic fighting between the U.S. Army and Sadr's Mehdi Army militia have claimed the lives of several people in the past week alone. Family and medical sources said six Iraqis lost their lives last Sunday, while two Iraqi children were killed and 23 people injured in fighting on June 11.

The impoverished neighborhood is a Sadr stronghold where the rebel cleric's militiamen have clashed repeatedly with U.S. troops since he launched his uprising against the U.S.-led occupation more than two months ago.

http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=6/20/2004&Cat=4&Num=004

18/06/2004 - 15:08:07

British forces clashed with gunmen loyal to rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in the south-eastern Iraq for a second day, killing at least two insurgents.

No British soldiers were hurt, a British military spokesman said.

Insurgents launched at least four separate hit-and-run attacks against British troops last night, near Amarah, 180 miles south-east of Baghdad, said the spokesman.

The members of al-Sadr’s militia used small arms, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades in clashes that lasted about two hours, witnesses said.

At least two insurgents were killed, one in Amarah and another in the southern city of Basra, the army spokesman said.

Insurgents also launched attacks against British soldiers in Amarah on Wednesday after they detained militia leader Ahmed Hachi.

Al-Sadr’s forces are skirmishing regularly with US troops in Baghdad’s Sadr City district, but they were routed by the 1st Armoured Division in Karbala and their ranks were significantly reduced in Najaf and Kufa, coalition forces say.

http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/story.asp?j=139359314&p=y3936xzz5