Clashes in Baghdad militia bastion kill 10
Middle East Desk Report

BAGHDAD—Sporadic overnight clashes between Shiite militiamen and US and Iraqi forces in Baghdad’s Sadr City killed at least 10 people, including a woman, Iraqi and US officials said on Sunday. At least 44 people were wounded in the clashes, which began around 6:00 pm (1500 GMT) and continued well after day break.
A local medic said eight people were killed in the night, while the US military said two more militiamen were killed between 8:30 am (0530 GMT) and 10:50 am in separate incidents in Sadr City after they attacked US troops. The clashes came despite a call by Shiite radical leader Moqtada al-Sadr on Friday for an end to fighting between Iraqi security forces and his Mahdi Army militia, who dominate Sadr City.
Sadr had threatened on April 19 to launch all-out war against government forces unless attacks on his militiamen came to a halt. But on Friday, he softened his tone and called on “my brothers in the army, police and Jaish al-Mahdi (Mahdi Army) to stop the bloodshed.” He said his threat of war had been aimed at American forces.
US troops began building a concrete wall in Sadr City last week in what they said was a bid to prevent rocket and mortar attacks on the heavily fortified Green Zone, seat of the Iraqi government and the US embassy, angering residents of the impoverished slum of two million people.
The latest deaths bring to more than 400 the number of people killed in Sadr City since March 25, when Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered a crackdown on militias across the country, starting in the main southern city of Basra. In an interview aired by Al-Arabiya television on Saturday, Maliki set four conditions for ending the military assaults.
“We have four demands, not more, that all those carrying arms — not just the Mahdi Army — should adhere to,” Maliki told the Dubai-based news channel. “Handing in all heavy and medium weapons, and not interfering in the work of government departments,” Maliki said spelling out his first two conditions, in excerpts of the interview.
“Never interfere in the tasks of the police and army, so that police and army would operate everywhere — in Sadr City, Basra and Mosul — without any objections,” he added. Maliki also demanded the “handing in of the wanted.”
Iraq’s prime minister met Sunday with the Sunni Arab vice president to discuss reintegrating Sunni political parties into the Shiite-dominated government as militants fired a salvo of rockets or motars at the heavily guarded Green Zone. At least eight rounds slammed into the section of Baghdad that houses the Iraqi government and U.S. Embassy, said a police official who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Sirens could be heard from the area and loudspeakers warned residents to take cover. There was no immediate word on casualties or damage. The militants apparently were taking advantage of a sandstorm that blanketed the Iraqi capital Sunday and grounded U.S. helicopters and drones that normally track their activities.
Meanwhile, the meeting between Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Tariq al-Hashemi came a day after the Sunni leader said the return of his boycotting political bloc to the Cabinet was a priority. The two men discussed “the future of the political process and the rebuilding of a national and unified government,” according to a statement from the presidency office.
On Saturday, al-Hashemi said the government needs to reconcile quickly to “save Iraq.” His comments were the latest to signal readiness by the Sunni National Accordance Front to rejoin the government after an absence of nearly nine months. The group quit the government in protest over what they described as its anti-Sunni bias.