36 Iraqis killed in battle with British forces

As many as 36 people were killed in a fierce battle early today between Shiite militiamen and British forces doing house-to-house searches south of Baghdad, Iraqi police and hospital officials said.

The clashes took place in Amarah, 200 miles south-east of Baghdad.

A doctor at the city's general hospital said 36 bodies had been taken to his facility, though he could not determine how many were militiamen and how many were civilians.

The British military could not immediately comment on the reports.

More than 100 people were also injured in the fighting, the officials said.

Iraqi police said the Mahdi Army, the militia commanded by radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, was involved in the clashes, which lasted for about two hours before dawn.

The violence took place in the neighbourhoods of al-Mulameen, Um Ghurba and al-Qatta'a, in eastern Amarah, as well as in the Mijar area, about 20 miles west of the city, they said.

Elsewhere today, two people were killed in clashes that erupted between Iraqi police and Mahdi Army fighters in Nasiriyah, about 70 miles south of Amarah, police said.

The fighting began after some police patrols were attacked there last night, a police officer and an official in the town's health department said.

Some local tribesman had joined the fight, siding with Iraqi police in trying to oust the militiamen from their town, the officials said.

A policeman and a militiaman were killed, and more than 60 people were injured, most of them police, they said.

The battle included at least 11 mortar strikes on police headquarters in Nasiriyah.