US troops raid cleric stronghold

American forces raided radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s stronghold in Baghdad and killed five suspected militia fighters in air strikes today, a day after he resurfaced to end nearly four months in hiding and demand US troops leave Iraq, .

US and Iraqi forces called in the air strikes in Sadr City, after a raid in which they captured a “suspected terrorist cell leader,” the US military said in statement.

The statement claimed the captured man was “the suspected leader in a secret cell terrorist network known for facilitating the transport of weapons and explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, from Iran to Iraq, as well as bringing militants from Iraq to Iran for terrorist training.”

The militia fighters were killed in air strikes on nine cars that were seen positioning themselves to attack American forces after the raid, the military said.

An Iraqi police official said US jets and helicopters hit the Habibiyah district in Sadr City, killing three civilians and wounding eight others.

The official said 10 cars in a line to buy petrol were destroyed. The police report did not mention the capture of an alleged terrorist or the killing of any militia fighters.

Al-Sadr’s reappearance in the fourth month of the US-Iraqi security crackdown on Baghdad was expected to complicate the mission to crack down on violence and broker political compromise in the country.

Hours after the cleric spoke in at a key Shiite shrine in Kufa, about 100 miles south of Baghdad, the notorious leader of al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia in the city of Basra was killed in a shootout as British and Iraq troops tried to arrest him, police and the British military said, further inflaming tensions in the Shiite areas of southern Iraq.

Al-Sadr went underground – reportedly in Iran – at the start of the security crackdown on Baghdad 14 weeks ago. He also had ordered his militia off the streets to prevent conflict with US forces.

His return to the Shiite holy city of Najaf appeared to be an effort by the 33-year-old cleric to regain control over his militia and to take advantage of the illness of a Shiite rival.