34 die as US forces clash with rebel cleric's gunmen

US forces battled rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s gunmen in a Baghdad slum in clashes today that killed 34 people, including one American soldier, and wounded 193.

Tanks moved into Sadr City and armoured personnel carriers and Bradley fighting vehicles were deployed at key intersections. Ambulances with sirens wailing rushed the wounded to hospitals as plumes of black smoke rose into the sky.

Several warplanes flew over the sprawling neighbourhood of more than two million.

In another part of the Iraqi capital, a roadside bomb targeted the Baghdad governor’s convoy, killing two people but leaving him uninjured, the Interior Ministry said. Three of Governor Ali al-Haidri’s bodyguards were also hurt in the attack in the western suburb of Hay al-Adel.

The fighting in Sadr City erupted when militants attacked American forces carrying out routine patrols, said Captain Brian O’Malley.

“We just kept coming under fire,” he said.

O’Malley said the American soldier was killed by small-arms fire and that several others were wounded.

Five US soldiers have been killed in Iraq since noon on Monday.

A senior Health Ministry official, Saad al-Amili, said 33 Iraqis have been killed and 193 injured in the Sadr City clashes in the past 24 hours.

An al-Sadr spokesman in Baghdad, Sheik Raed al-Kadhimi, blamed what he described as intrusive American incursions into Sadr City and attempts to arrest the cleric’s followers.

“Our fighters have no choice but to return fire and to face the US forces and helicopters pounding our houses,” he said.

The impoverished neighbourhood had been relatively calm since al-Sadr called for ceasefire last week and announced he was going into politics.

Al-Sadr led a three-week uprising in the holy city of Najaf that ended 10 days ago with a peace deal that allowed his Mahdi militia fighters to walk away with their guns. The combat in Najaf left thousands dead and devastated much of the city.

Many Mahdi militiamen are believed to have returned to their stronghold in Sadr City.