World Mar. 27, 2008 - 05:19AM JST ( 4 )

BAGHDAD —

Iraq’s premier on Wednesday gave militiamen battling his forces in Basra 72 hours to lay down their arms, as firefights in several Shiite strongholds across the country killed more than 50 people.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki issued the ultimatum as Iraqi troops moved for a second straight day into neighbourhoods controlled by the Mahdi Army militia of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in the southern oil hub and port city.

Sadr’s powerful movement called protest rallies for Thursday “to express no confidence in the Maliki government” following the Basra assault launched by Iraq forces on Tuesday.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said the battles in Basra alone killed at least 20 people and wounded 200, with more killed as fighting spread to Sadr’s stronghold in Baghdad and other cities.

U.S. military spokesman Major General Kevin Bergner told a news conference that 2,000 extra Iraqi security forces had been sent to Basra for the operation aimed at quelling “lawless gangs” that have taken over parts of city.

The Basra assault is putting heavy pressure on a ceasefire Sadr ordered last August, which the U.S. military says has played a significant role in reducing violence.

Maliki said he would allow time for those wanting to lay down their arms.

“We are not going to chase those who hand over their weapons within 72 hours,” he said in a statement issued by the Basra Operational Command. “If they do not surrender their arms, the law will follow its course.”

Basra has become the theatre of a bitter turf war between the Mahdi Army and two rival Shiite factions—the powerful 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 is seen as the economic nerve centre of the country and was transferred to Iraqi control by the British military in December.

Clashes between militiamen, Iraqi and, in some cases, U.S. troops have also been raging in other parts of Iraq, including in Sadr City, Sadr’s sprawling and impoverished Baghdad bastion that is home to two million people.

An Iraqi interior ministry official said 20 people were killed and 115 wounded in the Sadr City clashes, including women and children.

The U.S. military said two of its soldiers were killed in Baghdad on Wednesday, including one in eastern sector of the capital. It was not clear whether the soldier died in clashes in Sadr City.

Firefights also erupted in the Shiite city of Kut southeast of Baghdad, where seven people were killed, police said.

The U.S. military said its troops carried out an air strike in the central city of Hilla in which four “special group criminals” were killed.

The military uses the term “special groups” to refer to renegade Mahdi Army elements who it says are trained in Iran in the use of sophisticated weaponry, including rockets and roadside bombs.

Sadr called for talks to end the crisis and demanded that Maliki leave Basra, where he has been personally overseeing the crackdown.

“Sadr has asked Prime Minister Maliki to leave Basra and to send a parliamentary delegation to resolve the crisis in the city,” the head of the Sadr movement’s political bureau, Liwa Sumaysim, said in the city of Najaf.

Sumaysim said the Sadrists have called for anti-Maliki protests in Baghdad and the southern city of Amara on Thursday.

When the raids began on Tuesday, the cleric had threatened to launch nationwide protests and a civil revolt if the attacks did not end.

Bergner said the assaults were not targeting Sadr’s militiamen in particular. “The actions are not against the Mahdi Army. It is the government of Iraq taking responsibility and acting to deal with criminals on the streets.”

He said the target of raids by U.S. and Iraqi forces in Sadr City since Tuesday have been gunmen firing rockets and mortars into the highly fortified Green Zone, seat of the Iraqi government, and surrounding suburbs.

Such projectiles fired on Wednesday wounded three Americans in the Green Zone, U.S. embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo said.

Residents of Sadr City insisted Mahdi Army militiamen were the ones being targeted.

Fighters, dressed in their traditional black clothing, were seen on the streets of Sadr City Wednesday, ready to fight the troops.

“Our battle is a battle of solidarity with our brothers in Basra,” said Saeed Abbas, head of a small group of Mahdi Army fighters.

“We are chased by the security forces, we are not attacking them. But when they do attack us we fire back.”

AFP