Shiite militants fought US and Iraqi forces around Baghdad’s Shiite district of Sadr City early today despite a call for calm by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr following the assassination of one of his top aides.

THE number of Iraqis killed in March climbed to 1,082, the highest monthly figure since August 2007, amid a spike in violence driven by clashes between Shi’ite militiamen and security forces, officials have said.

American forces raided radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s stronghold in Baghdad and killed five suspected militia fighters in air strikes today, a day after he resurfaced to end nearly four months in hiding and demand US troops leave Iraq, .

A majority of Iraqi politicians have signed draft legislation that calls for a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq.

A top Iraqi insurgent leader today claimed in an audiotape posted online that his al-Qaida-linked group had begun manufacturing its own rockets.

Key US and Iraqi officials today issued cautiously optimistic reports one month into the latest drive to curb sectarian bloodshed in Baghdad but warned that months would pass before the operation could be labelled a success.

At least 11 people were killed in Iraq today when a suicide car bomber struck a police checkpoint in the Shiite holy city of Najaf.

US-backed Iraqi troops have engaged in a major security sweep to break illegal militias’ hold on Baghdad, arresting the Iraq health ministry’s second-highest official.

Iraqi forces today detained a senior Health Ministry official accused of corruption and helping to funnel millions of pounds to Shiite militiamen blamed for much of the recent sectarian violence in the capital, the US military said.

Violence raked Baghdad today as an Iraqi general took charge of the security operation in the capital and Iraqi police and soldiers manned new roadblocks - initial steps indicating the start of the long-anticipated joint operation with American forces to curb sectarian bloodshed.

US and Iraqi forces arrested one of Muqtada al-Sadr’s top aides today in Baghdad, his office said, as pressure increases on the radical Shiite cleric’s militia ahead of a planned security sweep aimed at stemming the sectarian violence ransacking the capital.

The Iraqi foreign minister today said the five Iranians detained by US-led forces in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq were working in a liaison office that had government approval and was in the process of being approved as a consulate.

Radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has agreed to allow supporters to rejoin the Iraqi government after a three-week boycott, officials close to the militia leader said, as political rivals pushed to form a coalition without him.

Explosives planted in a car went off while police were trying to defuse them in Sadr City, killing two policemen and wounding four civilians, police said today amid reports that more car bombs were targeting the Shiite slum.

THE Shi’ite militia run by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr seized control of a southern Iraqi city yesterday in one of the boldest acts of defiance yet by the country’s powerful, unofficial armies.

A parked car bomb exploded today in Baghdad’s upmarket Mansour neighbourhood, killing at least six people and wounding 18 others.

The top US general in Iraq today said Iraqi forces should be able to take over security with little coalition support as early as next year, even as a bombing at a Baghdad market killed at least 24 people and dozens of others were slain around the country.

AT least two dozen bodies, many bearing signs of torture, were found dumped in Shi’ite areas of Baghdad yesterday, while the government almost doubled the death toll from clashes this week between militiamen and Iraqi forces, saying 73 people had died.

Iraqi and US forces raided a Shiite militia stronghold in Baghdad today, triggering a gunbattle that left three people dead, while 12 others were killed elsewhere.

Parliament approved Iraq’s new national unity government today, achieving a goal it is hoped will reduce widespread violence so that allied forces can eventually go home. But as the legislators met, at least 27 people were killed and 68 wounded in a series of attacks.

Iraq’s president today said he would call the country’s new parliament into session for the first time on Sunday, starting the clock on a 60-day period during which the legislature must elect a new head of state and sign off on a prime minister and Cabinet.

Iraqi police and soldiers fanned out today to enforce an extraordinary daytime curfew in Baghdad and three provinces in a bid to halt the wave of sectarian violence that has killed about 120 people since the bombing of one of Shiite Islam’s holiest shrines.

At least two Iraqis claiming to have been beaten by British soldiers during a 2004 demonstration today said that they would take legal action against the British military and seek compensation.

Four US Marines died in a pair of roadside bombings in western Iraq’s volatile Anbar province, the military said today. Another explosion killed two Iraqi civilians south of Baghdad.

THE Islamist Shi'ite Alliance bloc will fall short of retaining its parliamentary majority after last month's election, according to an almost final tally of seats.

A US soldier convicted of murdering unarmed Iraqis said today that he falsely implicated his platoon leader in the hope of receiving a lighter prison sentence.

Members of a Shiite Muslim militia raided a house in Baghdad and freed four hostages including Syrian and Lebanese citizens, an official in radical cleric’s Muqtada al-Sadr office said today.

AIDES of a radical Shi’ite cleric met yesterday with a key Sunni group seeking to ease sectarian tensions in Iraq, while gunmen killed a top trade ministry official as a spree of violence that followed the announcement of a new government entered its fourth week.

Sectarian tension whipped through Iraq as thousands of Shiite and Sunni Muslim protesters mixed calls for an end to America’s occupation with stinging condemnations of each other.

Gunmen fired on supporters of the radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, killing one person and wounding two others as they made their way to protests planned for the second anniversary of Baghdad’s fall to US-led troops.

A US army tank company commander told his court-martial today that his shooting of an unarmed Iraqi wounded in a chase was “honourable” and “the right thing to do”.

EXPLOSIONS and gunfire erupted last night outside hotels housing foreigners and journalists in downtown Baghdad, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.

An aide to rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr today offered to hand over medium and heavy weapons and cooperate with Iraqi security forces in Baghdad if the government stops pursuing members of the Shiite militia and releases most of his followers held in jail.

US military deaths in the Iraq campaign passed 1,000 as clashes with both Sunni and Shiite militants killed seven Americans in the Baghdad area.

Rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has called on his followers to end their uprising against US and Iraqi forces while he considers forming a political movement, senior al-Sadr officials said.

Rebel Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr today called on his followers across Iraq to end fighting against US and Iraqi forces, an al-Sadr aide said.

US military officials and representatives of rebel Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr held talks today aimed at reducing violence in the restive Baghdad slum of Sadr City, a day after clashes there killed 10 people, officials said.

IRAQ’S most revered Shi’ite leader yesterday persuaded a rebel cleric to accept a deal ending a three-week uprising in Najaf, after returning to the holy city amid bloody clashes that killed at least 74 people.

Plumes of black smoke rose above the embattled city of Najaf today after American warplanes bombed insurgent positions overnight and supporters of a radical cleric charged that shrapnel from a US attack had hit parts of the Imam Ali Shrine. The military denied the claim.

Hours after being freed by kidnappers who threatened to kill him, US journalist Micah Garen said he hoped to stay in Iraq to continue working on a documentary project he had started about the looting of archaeological sites.

Top aides to firebrand Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called on kidnappers to immediately free a western journalist they had threatened to kill unless US forces withdrew from the holy city of Najaf.

Iraqi forces could begin an offensive against Muqtada al-Sadr within hours, despite the firebrand cleric’s acceptance of a cease-fire proposal, an Iraqi Cabinet minister said today.

Iraqi militants are threatening to kill a Turkish hostage if his company does not withdraw from Iraq within three days, private NTV television reported in Istanbul.

REBEL Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr backed down last night in the face of a looming Iraqi army assault on a holy shrine in Najaf where his gunmen have been holding out.