By IRNA
Baghdad : The US and Iraqi forces launched offensive against Sadr City on outskirts of Baghdad and Basra on Tuesday.
In a statement issued late Tuesday, the US military said an American soldier was killed in Baghdad about 5.p.m. No other details were provided.
Witnesses in Basra said jets flew overhead as armored vehicles raced through the city and machine gun and canon fire reverberated through the streets.
Civilians took refuge in their homes. Iraqi television showed images of civilian gunmen with grenade launchers taking up positions and ambulances ferrying the wounded to hospitals.
On Tuesday night, after about six hours of silence, armored vehicles and helicopters could again be heard moving through the city, witnesses said. Gunfire and shelling could be heard to the north.
In Baghdad, some areas were deserted as clashes broke out across the city. In downtown Baghdad, checkpoints blocked sparse traffic every 100 yards.
Moqtada Sadr party said the cease-fire was still in effect and called for peaceful civil disobedience to protest the US military action against Sadr City known as the party’s center.
In Najaf, hundreds of people carrying holy Quran and olive branches mounted a sit-in, chanting, “No to occupation, no to terrorism.”