BAGHDAD, Aug 24: US soldiers battled Shia fighters in Baghdad on Friday, killing 13 people, a day after a fierce clash between Al Qaeda militants and a rival group left dozens dead.

US helicopters fired on militants in Baghdad’s northwestern Shuala neighbourhood in the pre-dawn firefight, killing 13 people, including two women, a medic and security officials said.

Shuala is one of the main strongholds of the Mahdi Army, the Shia militia loyal to anti-American Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

Doctor Mohammed Abbas from the Al-Noor Hospital in Shuala said the facility had received 13 corpses of those slain.

“Those dead were killed by shrapnel and two of them are women,” he said, suggesting that some of the dead could be civilians. “We have also admitted 15 wounded people.” The US military said eight militants were killed after one of its patrols came under attack.

“We have initial reports that an American patrol was engaged by small arms fire in Shuala this morning resulting in eight enemy killed in action,” it said in a statement. An Iraqi security official said US troops clashed with militiamen between 3:00 am (2300 GMT on Thursday) and 5:00 am (0100 GMT) on Friday. “American soldiers in helicopters fired at militants in Shuala area before dawn,” he said. Hamdallah al-Rikabi, a spokesman for Sadr’s movement in western Baghdad, confirmed the clashes.

Hundreds of Iraqis later took the dead to the central holy city of Najaf for burial, a photographer said.

Beating their chests and chanting anti-American slogans, the mourners loaded the coffins draped in Iraqi flags on taxis and vans and proceeded to Najaf.

In the past few weeks the US military has killed or captured dozens of militants from splinter groups who it says have broken away from the main Mahdi Army and indulged in attacks on coalition and Iraqi forces.

The clashes came a day after suspected Al Qaeda fighters battled police and members of a rival Sunni insurgent group in a town northeast of Baghdad.

The battle in the town of Kanan in the restive Diyala province left at least 23 people dead, including a Sunni sheikh who had recently turned his support to the police to fight Al Qaeda in Iraq group, police said.

The US military claims that a number of Sunni tribal chiefs and representatives have started supporting coalition and Iraqi forces to fight Al Qaeda in Iraq militants, blamed for much of violence besetting the country.

Iraqi forces were meanwhile stepping up security in the central holy city of Karbala ahead of the expected arrival of hundreds of thousands of Shia pilgrims to mark the anniversary on Tuesday of the birth of Imam Muhammad al-Mahdi.

Police Brigadier General Raed Shawkat of Karbala province said checkpoints were being installed across the region.

“We have set up checkpoints to ensure gunmen do not enter the province,” he said, adding a vehicle curfew would be imposed from Saturday.

The US military announced one more American soldier had died and four were wounded in an explosion in the northern Iraqi province of Salaheddin on Friday.—AFP