BAGHDAD, March 26: Many Shiite militants were reported to have been killed on Sunday in clashes with the US military at a mosque in Baghdad. The US military said it had no information about the incident, which Iraqi police and Shia sources said involved militant followers of Shia scholar Moqtada Sadr.

“More than 20 militants have been killed in the Mustafa mosque in the neighbourhood of Ur,” said Hazem al-Aaraji of Sadr’s movement, referring to a northeast Baghdad neighbourhood near the Shia quarter of Sadr City.

Iraqi police, meanwhile, said that 10 members of Sadr’s movement had been killed in the clashes and said that the area had been sealed off by US forces.

Inhabitants close to the affected area of north Baghdad said they could hear gunfire and ambulances in this part of town and the black-clad members of Sadr’s Mehdi Army could be seen in the streets. It was unclear how the clashes began.

30 BODIES found: The clashes came as 30 decapitated bodies were discovered dumped by the side of the road 30 kilometers south of Baquba, near the mixed Sunni-Shiite village of Mullah Eid in a province known for its sectarian tension and past killings.

Two mortars earlier had fallen near the home of Sadr in the holy city of Najaf, south of Baghdad, wounding three, said an official from his office.

In a statement read by one of his assistants, Sadr called on his followers to be “vigilant”, adding that the “forces of occupation want to embroil Iraqis in a war and endless crises.”

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said it was “entirely probable” the United States would make a “significant” drawdown of US troops in Iraq within a year.

“I think it’s entirely probable that we will see a significant drawdown of American forces over the next year,” she said, speaking on NBC television’s “Meet the Press” programme.

—AFP