The siege of Baghdad's Sadr City district has been called a 'large humanitarian crisis' [Reuters]

In the southern city of Basra, Iraqi troops took control on Saturday of a neighbourhood which has seen clashes between security forces and followers of Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shia leader.
 
Major-General Abdel Karim Khalaf, a military spokesman, told the AFP news agency: "We launched an operation in the morning. There was some exchange of fire.
 
"The operation is now over in Hayaniya without any strong resistance."
 
Hayaniya has been the scene of intense fighting since March 25, when Nuri al-Maliki, Iraq's prime minister, ordered a crackdown on militias in the southern port city.
 
US fighter jets have carried out several air strikes in the district, leaving dozens of people dead.
 
Sadr City clashes
 
In Baghdad, police described battles that began during sandstorms on Friday afternoon in Sadr City as among the heaviest in the capital since the crackdown began.
 
Officials at the Sadr City general hospital said 71 people were admitted for treatment of injuries received in the fighting, as well as 12 bodies.
 
Lieutenant-Colonel Steven Stover, a US military spokesman, said US troops were involved in sporadic clashes that continued into Saturday.

A dozen people have been killed in the latest fighting in Bagdhad's Sadr City [Reuters]

"They have now completely surrounded Sadr City. The media is talking about Gaza, while we now have a second 'Rafah crossing' in Sadr city," she said, referring to Israel's siege of the Palestinian territory.
 
Clashes between security forces and Shia militias were also reported near Nasiriya, a city about 320km southeast of Baghdad.
 
Authorities imposed a curfew on the town of Suq al-Shiyoukh after a firefight in which two Mahdi Army fighters were killed and six policemen injured.
 
In Kirkuk, an Iraqi civilian was killed and three others were wounded in a car-bomb explosion in al-Hajjaj district, police said.
 
Police also said that a soldier was killed and another injured in a bomb explosion that targeted an Iraqi army patrol in Baiji, west of Kirkuk.
 
Meanwhile, the US military said an American soldier was killed by a roadside bomb while on patrol in northern Salahuddin province.

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