BAGHDAD — The U.S. Army said they were militants. Sadr City residents said at least some were civilians, and photographs showed the dust-covered body of at least one child being pulled from a mountain of rubble after Tuesday’s fighting.
Whatever the facts, at least 28 people were dead after the four-hour battle, the latest deadly showdown between U.S. and Iraqi forces and Shiite Muslim militiamen in recent weeks.
The destruction and death toll underscored the intensity of fighting in Sadr City, where U.S. forces are pursuing militants who often operate from the narrow alleyways and crowded residential sectors of the sprawling Shiite stronghold. Clashes have occurred there nearly every day since March, when an Iraqi military crackdown on Shiite militias sparked an uprising by fighters loyal to cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
With many of Sadr City’s main roads peppered with roadside bombs and its side streets too narrow for U.S. tanks or other heavy vehicles to navigate, U.S. forces often call in airstrikes or use guided rockets to hit their targets.
Locals say civilians often are caught in the chaos.
The military says it does everything it can to avoid this. In a statement Tuesday, a military spokesman responded angrily to the accusations that civilians were targeted.
“The rockets struck militants firing from buildings, alleyways and rooftops,” Lt. Col. Steven Stover wrote in an e-mail response to questions. “We are not targeting law-abiding civilians. Those targeted were firing weapons at U.S. soldiers.”
Violence also rocked Iraq’s Sunni Muslim stronghold of Diyala province, north of Baghdad. Police said a suicide bomber blew herself up in the village of Mukhisa, killing one person and injuring five. The victims were members of the Awakening movement, in which people work alongside U.S. and Iraqi forces to fight insurgents.
In Baghdad, assassins killed Dhia Jodi Jaber, the director-general of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs. Some reports said he was shot to death while in his motorcade, but others said a roadside bomb had killed him.
The trial for one of the best-known members of Sad dam Hussein’s inner circle, former Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, got underway in Baghdad but was adjourned until May 20. Aziz, 72, is accused of ordering the executions of 42 merchants who allegedly violated state price controls on essential goods in 1992. He could face the death penalty if convicted.
