DIWANIYAH (Iraq), Oct 8: US and Iraqi forces killed 30 Shia militiamen on Sunday during a fierce street battle in the southern city of Diwaniyah in which a US main battle tank was severely damaged.

The fighting erupted amid attacks around the country and one day after police found the corpses of 51 murder victims in Baghdad.

Gunbattles broke out in Diwaniyah after a joint Iraqi and US force tried to arrest a local Shia militia leader accused of slaughtering Iraqi soldiers during a previous clash in August, Iraqi officials said.

A US tank was disabled by a barrage of rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) during the clashes, but the snatch squad returned and seized their suspect, identified by Iraqi sources as a local commander of the Mahdi Army militia.

“Iraqi army and Multi-National Division Baghdad (MND-B) soldiers killed approximately 30 terrorists and detained a high-value target after a terrorist attack today in Diwaniyah, south of Baghdad,” a military statement said.

An Iraqi defence official named the suspect as Kifah al-Greiti, a commander in the Mahdi Army of Shia radical leader Moqtada al-Sadr.

In August, Mahdi Army fighters killed more than 20 Iraqi soldiers in Diwaniyah, officials said at the time, accusing the militia of murdering in cold blood a dozen troops who ran out of ammunition during a gunbattle.

The attempt to arrest Greiti provoked a fierce response.

“An M1A2 Abrams tank was struck by multiple RPG rounds and was severely damaged. Iraqi army and MND-B soldiers engaged the enemy forces and killed approximately 30 of the terrorists,” the US statement said.

“Reportedly, up to 10 enemy RPG teams attacked the combined forces, of which six teams were destroyed. MND-B and IA soldiers immediately secured the area so the damaged vehicle could be recovered,” it said.

Eventually, the Iraqi soldiers captured their suspect, the military said, adding that thus far there were no reports of US or Iraqi troop casualties.

Medics at Diwaniyah’s main hospital reported that seven civilians had been wounded during the battle, one of them critically.—AFP