By Xinhua,
Baghdad : The Iranian ambassador to Iraq Saturday criticized the U.S. military operations in Baghdad’s main Shiite bastion of Sadr City which killed many civilians.
“We criticize the pounding of cities and the siege of people, which will aggravate the situations and make things worse,” ambassador Hassan Kazemi Qomi told a news conference at the Iranian Embassy.
“The insistence of the Americans to lay siege on Sadr City has led to the killing of innocent people and is a mistake that will lead to negative results and the Iraqi government will have to shoulder the responsibility,” Qomi added.
He said his country supports the Iraqi government’s crackdown on Shiite militias in the southern city of Basra launched on March25.
Qomi’s comments came as U.S. and Iraqi troops, backed by aircraft, conducted an operation in several parts of the sprawling slum of Sadr City on Friday, killing at least eight people and wounding some 61 others.
For the past three weeks, Sadr City has witnessed fierce clashes between Shiite militias and Iraqi and U.S. forces. U.S. military staged dozens of airstrikes in the sprawling district of over 2 million people.
Local Beladi TV channel quoted medical sources as reporting that at least 330 citizens were killed and 1621 others wounded during the continual clashes and airstrikes in Sadr City since March 25.