Four die in Baghdad blast as coalition clashes with al-Sadr militia

US AND British troops clashed yesterday with forces of radical Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr for a second day, and four Iraqis were killed in an explosion in a Baghdad market.

Three British soldiers were wounded in a Basra blast.

Al-Sadr's militia fired mortar shells before dawn yesterday at the governor's office and other British positions in Amarah, 180 miles south-east of Baghdad, a British official and residents said. No British casualties were reported in that attack, but British spokesman Maj Ian Clooney said "a number of possible mortar positions" were destroyed.