By Xinhua,
Baghdad : Overnight clashes between U.S.-backed Iraqi security forces and Shiite militia in Baghdad’s eastern neighborhood of Sadr City killed at least seven people and wounded some 20 others, medical officials said on Thursday.
Imam Ali and al-Sadr hospitals in Sadr City have received at least seven male bodies and 20 wounded people in sporadic clashes since late on Wednesday in the Shiite slum, said the officials from the two hospitals on condition of anonymity.
The U.S. military did not confirm the information from Sadr City yet, but a military statement said that its troops killed five “criminals” in Baghdad’s northern neighborhood of Kadhmiyah, another stronghold for Mahdi Army militia loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
The latest clashes cast doubt over a deal struck on Saturday by representatives of the Iraqi government and Sadr’s movement which aimed at ending weeks of fighting in Baghdad between U.S.-backed Iraqi security forces and Mahdi Army militia.
Since late March, battles flared between Mahdi Army militia and U.S.-backed Iraqi security forces, when a U.S. and Iraqi military crackdown sparked an uprising by Sadr’s followers.