Police, gunmen clash in south Iraq, 35 killed

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Two days of fighting between gunmen loyal to Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and Iraqi police linked to a rival Shi'ite faction have killed 35 people in the southern city of Nassiriya, a hospital doctor said on Tuesday.

The fighting underscored frictions between Sadr's political movement and the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC), which have erupted into violence before and raised fears of a battle for control of Iraq's more stable Shi'ite southern regions.

By nightfall on Tuesday, the clashes had ended, residents said, with Sadr's Mehdi Army militiamen withdrawing and policemen and soldiers retaking control of the streets. Sadr had earlier ordered the militia to stop fighting.

The clashes began on Sunday night, when police attacked a Sadr office in Nassiriya in an apparent response to an attempt to kill a local police commander, who residents said was allied to the Badr Organisation, SIIC's armed wing.

The hospital doctor, who declined to be identified, said civilians were among the dead and wounded, including women and children. He said 35 had been killed and 125 wounded.

Interior Ministry spokesman Brigadier-General Abdul-Karim Khalaf put the death toll at 16 with 60 wounded.

Such gun-battles risk an escalation in violence in a region that is strategically vital for Iraq's oil exports and through which much of its essential imports must pass.

The British military said it had flown the head of the 10th Division of the Iraqi Army by helicopter from Basra for urgent talks with the governor of Dhi Qar province, of which Nassiriya is the capital.

Italian troops handed over Dhi Qar to Iraqi security control last year. British military spokesman Major David Gell said the governor had not asked British forces to intervene.

CEASEFIRE DEAL

Sadr officials said the cleric on Tuesday ordered his Mehdi Army fighters to return home and not to engage the police. Bahaa al-Araji, a Sadrist lawmaker in Baghdad, said the Sadrists had reached a deal with the governor of Dhi Qar for a ceasefire.

"We received an order to stop fighting. We gave this order to our people, but not to those in the front line because they are in direct contact with the police and army, who have not stopped shooting," said Adil al-Ansari, the head of Sadr's local office.

Hours later, the gunmen appeared to have heeded the order and withdrawn, residents said as they slowly ventured outside.

One resident said the police appeared to have been out-numbered and outgunned by Sadr's Mehdi Army militiamen, who were armed with mortars, Katyusha rockets, assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades.

He said the fighting had turned the centre of the city into a battleground. The streets were deserted apart from gunmen shooting at each other from roof-tops and street corners.

In April, the Mehdi Army fought fierce clashes with police in the city of Diwaniya that killed dozens and forced the intervention of the U.S. military.