US says fighting killed 30 Shi’ite militia

US and Iraqi forces clashed with Shi’ite militiamen yesterday in the southern city of Diwaniyah after a raid on the home of a leader of the Mahdi Army, which is accused of killing Sunnis.

The US military said 30 militiamen were killed in the fighting, about two months after a similar battle in the predominantly Shi’ite city, 80 miles south of Baghdad. Officials from the party of radical Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, which heads the militia, denied any of their fighters were killed.

A US Abrams tank was seriously damaged when it was hit by rocket-propelled grenades, but no casualties were reported among the US or Iraqi forces.