Heavy fighting in Iraq's Basra

BASRA, Iraq (Reuters) - Heavy fighting broke out in the Iraqi city of Basra on Saturday, where police said government forces entered a neighborhood known as a stronghold of fighters loyal to the anti-U.S. cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr.

A Reuters reporter in the city said he had heard the sound of heavy gunfire and explosions at dawn.

He described it as the heaviest fighting for weeks in the southern city, where Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki launched a crackdown on Sadr's followers late last month.

Police said Iraqi forces had entered the centre of Hayaniya, a neighborhood known as a stronghold of Sadr's Mehdi Army militia.

No information about casualties was immediately available.

(Reporting by Aref Mohammed; writing by Peter Graff in Baghdad; Editing by Elizabeth Piper)