By IRNA,
Baghdad : The civilian casualty toll mounted Wednesday as US escalated air strikes on residential areas in Sadr City amid Iranian call on the US to stop air strikes.
“Iran is concerned over further bloodshed and civilian deaths in Iraq,” Hassan Kazemi Qomi told a press conference in Baghdad earlier this week.
He said that the warring parties should sit at the negotiating table.
IRNA reporter in Baghdad said citing Iraqi Interior Ministry that two omen were among seven civilians killed in indiscriminate bombardment of Sadr City overnight.
Foreign correspondents in Baghdad said citing US military officers that the US launched missiles on Sadr City.
Iraqi people expect the United Nations to intervene to stop the humanitarian crisis.
The US cannons targeted Husseiniyah, a mainly Shia area late Tuesday killing dozens of innocent people.
US and Iraqi troops were backed by helicopters as they fought until Wednesday morning with suspected Shia militiamen who dominate the area, police said.
Women and children were among 20 people who were wounded, the Interior Ministry said.
Police and hospital officials also said eight civilians were killed and 44 others wounded in bombardment of Sadr City.
A seriously wounded man died as an ambulance speeding him to the hospital was caught in the cross fire, and an elementary school was damaged, police said.
Clashes that have occurred daily since Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki launched a crackdown against militias on March 25 have taken a heavy toll on civilians.
At least 315 people have been killed in Sadr City alone in the past month, according to an Interior Ministry official.
The Baghdad-based correspondents estimated the number of civilians in US air strikes on at least 200.
The US military operation, which began late last month, has put a severe strain on a nearly 8-month-old cease-fire called by Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
Two US Marines and an Iraqi civilian also were killed when a bomb-rigged water tanker truck exploded at a checkpoint near the western city of Ramadi on Tuesday in another apparent strike by al-Qaeda.