U.S. forces drawn deeper into Iraq crackdown

By Aref Mohammed

BASRA, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. forces were drawn deeper into Iraq's four-day-old crackdown on Shi'ite militants on Friday, launching air strikes in Basra for the first time and battling militants in Baghdad in heavy clashes.

The fighting has exposed a rift within the majority Shi'ite community and put pressure on Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, whose forces have failed to drive fighters loyal to cleric Moqtada al-Sadr off the streets.

Authorities shut down Baghdad with a strict curfew, but that did not halt rocket attacks and clashes in the capital.

U.S. helicopters repeatedly fired into Baghdad's Sadr City slum and other Shi'ite areas where fighters are holed up.

"There have been engagements going on in and around Sadr City. We've engaged the enemy with artillery, we've engaged the enemy with aircraft, we've engaged the enemy with direct fire," said Major Mark Cheadle, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Baghdad.

In Iraq's second-biggest city Basra where he launched the crackdown on Tuesday, Maliki extended a 72 hours deadline he had given militants to surrender, saying they had until April 8 to turn in their weapons for cash.

But Sadr's Mehdi Army fighters remained defiant.

"We will fight on and never give up our weapons," Mehdi Army deputy military commander in Basra Abu Hassan al-Daraji told Reuters by telephone. "We will not turn over a single bullet."

Defense Minister Abdel Qader Jassim said his forces in Basra had been caught off-guard by their foes.

"We supposed that this operation would be a normal operation, but we were surprised by this resistance and have been obliged to change our plans and our tactics," he told a news conference in Basra. In a sign of the worsening situation, reporters were brought to the briefing in military vehicles and kept inside for hours afterwards as fighting raged nearby.

Parliament called an emergency meeting, but just 54 members of the 275-seat body attended the session inside the fortified "Green Zone" government and diplomatic compound, which was bombarded by rockets as they gathered.

One missile hit the Green Zone office of Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, killing a security guard. The U.S. embassy ordered staff in the zone to stay under cover where possible and wear body armor and helmets when in the open.

The government says it is fighting "outlaws", but Sadr's followers say political parties in Maliki's Shi'ite-led government are using military force to marginalize their rivals ahead of local elections due by October.

GUNMEN HOLD STREETS

Reuters television footage from Basra showed masked gunmen from Sadr's Mehdi Army still in control of the streets, openly carrying rocket launchers and machine guns.