By IRNA
Baghdad : The US conducted air raids strikes on Iraq Friday as a clear sign of its refusal to go ahead with Iraqi reconstruction.
Political observers say that US should have speeded up reconstruction drive in Iraq and that military crackdown will not solve the Iraqi problem mainly emanated from shortages in Iraqi people’s livelihood.
In Basra, the conflict has put the city into a state of virtual siege, with electricity and drinkable water cut off in most neighborhoods.
British and American planes had been conducting surveillance runs over Basra since the fighting began to support the Iraqi military, but that this was the first time they had entered active fighting.
A Western official said negotiations between Iraqi government leaders and militia leaders in Basra had begun even as gunmen clashed.
IRNA reporter in Baghdad said that British and American aircraft were providing aerial support and that a small number of American ground troops had also entered Basra for the first time in years, mainly to monitor the performance of Iraqi forces.