Coalition demonstrates power as clashes kill 12 in Iraq

Twelve people died in overnight clashes in Baghdad’s Sadr City district, which has become a chief battleground between US and Iraqi forces and the Mahdi Army of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, police and hospital officials said today.

Iraqi troops also kept up the pressure on Shiite militants in the southern city of Basra, where British artillery fired a barrage of shells in a show of force in support of Iraqi government forces.