By DPA
Baghdad : US troops killed more than 40 Iraqis in one day, including 25 “criminals” who had attacked US soldiers, the military reported Monday in Baghdad.
On Sunday, the US Air Force killed 25 “criminals” that had previously attacked US soldiers, the military said.
Most of the deaths occurred during clashes between the Mahdi militia of radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and the combined US and Iraqi troops.
Al-Sadr’s militia had been battling the US and Iraqi forces since Tuesday, but the cleric called on his fighters over the weekend to withdraw from the streets of the southern city of Basra and other provinces.
The Iraqi government hailed al-Sadr’s move. Also Sunday, a curfew was partially lifted in Baghdad.
The military also said that one US soldier was killed in an explosion Sunday north of Baghdad and another soldier died from injuries he sustained Saturday in a blast in Anbar province.