UK's Miliband to back Maliki security drive

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - British Foreign Secretary David Miliband made an unannounced visit to Baghdad on Thursday and held talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki at which he was expected to back Maliki's crackdown on Shi'ite militias.

A British embassy spokeswoman gave no details about the talks, which followed a meeting of Iraq's neighbors and Western powers that both Miliband and Maliki attended in Kuwait on Tuesday.

Maliki launched the operation against Shi'ite militias late last month in the southern city of Basra, triggering widespread clashes with the Mehdi Army of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

Britain has around 4,000 troops stationed at an airbase on the outskirts of Basra. It delayed pulling up to 1,500 soldiers out of Iraq in the wake of that unrest.

While fighting has eased in Basra, Iraq's hub for most of its oil exports, clashes have taken place every day in and around the cleric's eastern Baghdad stronghold of Sadr City.

In the latest violence, Lieutenant-Colonel Steven Stover, a U.S. military spokesman, said troops were attacked on their way to raid a psychiatric hospital not far from Sadr City.

He said soldiers were attacked by roadside bombs and small arms fire, prompting the U.S. military to call for helicopter support. Four gunmen were killed, Stover added.

Iraqi forces eventually raided the al-Rashad psychiatric hospital but made no arrests, he said.

The hospital has been under the spotlight since its acting director was held on suspicion he was involved in passing on details of patients to Sunni Islamist al Qaeda.

He was released last week after being detained for two months. It was unclear if he was ever charged.

Hundreds have died in Shi'ite areas of Baghdad since Maliki launched his crackdown on the Mehdi Army.

Sadr has demanded a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and threatened over the weekend to wage "open war" if Maliki did not call off the campaign against his fighters.

Since Sadr issued his threat of war -- which could unravel months of security gains while U.S. forces are drawing down -- the U.S. military says it has killed more than 70 fighters in Sadr City and other Shi'ite parts of Baghdad.

(Reporting by Dean Yates, Peter Graff and Aseel Kamil; Writing by Dean Yates; Editing by Giles Elgood)