British troops kill ten in militia clashes

British troops suffered two minor casualties during overnight fighting in the southern Iraqi Shiite city of Amarah that left ten militants dead and 50 Iraqis injured.

British tanks were seen patrolling the major roads, while Mahdi Army militants loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr walked through the alleys, witnesses said.

Major Ian Clooney, a British spokesman, said British forces attacked positions that militants were using to attack patrols and bases with rocket-propelled grenades and mortars. The British suffered two minor casualties.

Coalition forces also dropped leaflets from planes telling the people of Amarah that the fighting was only hurting them.

In the southern cities of Nasiriyah, Basra and Samawah, insurgents targeted coalition forces with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades, causing no injuries, Clooney said.

“The insurgents are using cover and buildings to launch indirect attacks rather than open conflict,” he said.

In Najaf, the scene of the major fighting, US jet fighters flew overhead and Iraqi police manned checkpoints cutting the holy city in two as battles between American forces and the Shiite militia persisted for a seventh day.

Mortar shells flew at US forces moving into the city’s vast cemetery near the Imam Ali shrine, one of the holiest in Shia Islam. No US casualties were reported.

At least six Iraqis were killed and nine wounded in an explosion in a market north of Baghdad today.

A roadside bomb exploded at the market in Khan Bani Saad, about six miles south of Baqouba, a Health Ministry official said.