Shiite militiamen clash with troops

Tuesday, August 29, 2006 Nine U.S. soldiers were killed over the weekend in Iraq. DIWANIYAH, Iraq (AP) — The fighting lasted through the night and most of Monday, with more and more Iraqi troops moving in to try to put down a Shiite militia. By the end of the battle, the militia controlled a large swath of this southern city, and 40 people were dead. The first major skirmish between the military and militiamen made lethally clear how difficult it will be for Iraq's Shiite-led government to rein in the violent sectarian forces of a radical cleric. The fighting in this southern city dominated a day that saw at least 19 people die in two suicide car bombings in Baghdad — one outside the Interior Ministry and one on a line of cars waiting for fuel at a gas station. The U.S. military announced that nine U.S. soldiers were killed over the weekend in and around Baghdad, eight of them by roadside bombs and one by gunfire. Still, U.S. military authorities said there was less violence than before. 'Reduced violence' "We have reduced the amount of violence," U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell told reporters in Baghdad. "We are actually seeing progress out there." Diwaniyah, 80 miles south of Baghdad, is a Shiite-dominated city where the influence of firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army has been gradually increasing. The militia of the Mahdi Army already runs a virtual parallel government in Sadr City, a slum in eastern Baghdad. But the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, has found it difficult to rein in al-Sadr, whose movement holds 30 of the 275 seats in parliament and five Cabinet posts. Al-Sadr's backing also helped al-Maliki win the top job during painstaking negotiations within the Shiite alliance that led to the ouster of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari. Many Sunnis have expressed disappointment that al-Maliki's government has not moved to curb Shiite militias, especially the Mahdi Army. Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.