Three Iraqis die in Baghdad battles

Shiite insurgents fired mortar rounds and rocket-propelled grenades at a police station housing US troops in gun battles early today that killed three Iraqis in Baghdad in a stronghold of rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Helicopters and jet fighters flew over the station during the exchanges that the insurgents say came after US troops tried to raid homes and arrest militiamen.

A mortar round killed two militiamen and a civilian, said one al-Sadr official.

“This is the democracy George Bush brought us,” shouted one young boy as he displayed a blanket that was burned and tattered in the exchanges.

Shiite negotiators have been trying to mediate an end to the fighting in Iraq’s south, demanding US troops remain in their positions and stop arrests in the Najaf and Kufa area to encourage a local cease-fire.

In return, al-Sadr’s militia would continue withdrawing fighters from the two cities, a delegation statement said.

The mediators, including politician Ahmad Chalabi, proposed that Shiite monitors ensure compliance with the truce and urged the US-appointed Najaf provincial governor to put Iraqi police on the streets to maintain order.

Al-Sadr’s spokesman Qais al-Khazali said the withdrawal of militiamen from the streets would be complete within “a day or two”.

Even as talks continued, Shiite militiamen fired rocket-propelled grenades at US tanks and Humvees near a girls’ school in firefights that killed at least six and injured 11.