Eleven killed in surge of violence in Baghdad

BAGHDAD (AFP) - A surge of violence in Baghdad killed eleven people, including five civilians who died when they were struck by a roadside bomb in the city centre aimed at a police patrol, officials said on Monday.

The bomb attack struck at around 11:00 am (0800 GMT) in Nidhal Street, one of the embattled capital's main thoroughfares, Iraqi security and medical officials said.

Five passersby were killed and nine people wounded, two of them policemen, a security official said.

The US military, meanwhile, said six "criminals" were killed late Sunday by American forces in east Baghdad, where security forces have been battling Shiite militiamen since April 6 in fierce clashes in which around 90 people have died.

The clashes have been focused mainly in Sadr City, bastion of the Mahdi Army militia of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, which is still under partial curfew amid warnings by the Iraqi army that its streets are strewn with roadside bombs planted to impede US and Iraqi security forces.

A US military statement said US soldiers were attacked by rocket propelled grenades while on patrol in a M1A2 Abrams tank around 10.30 pm (1930 GMT) Sunday.

A US helicopter called in as part of air support killed one of the attackers while the crew of the tank shot dead five people on a nearby rooftop from where the attack had originated, the statement said.

Separately, the US military said a late-night roadside bomb attack on a US armoured vehicle in Baghdad Jadida, which adjoins Sadr City, set fire to a nearby market and burned it to the ground.

The latest bout of fighting forms part of a nationwide crackdown by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Shiite militiamen, including members of Sadr's Mahdi Army.

Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said on Sunday that Iraqi forces will battle militiamen in Sadr City until the sprawling district of two million people has been cleared of gunmen.

"We will continue until we secure Sadr City. We will not come out, we will not give up until the people of Sadr City have a normal life," Dabbagh told AFP.

Sadrists in response accused the government of using the security forces to weaken the movement ahead of provincial elections due in October.

"This statement (by Dabbagh) shows the government is persisting in carrying out its political agenda before the elections by using the security forces for party political purposes," Sadr spokesman Salah al-Obeidi told AFP in the shrine city of Najaf.

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