BAGHDAD, April 23: US troops said on Wednesday they killed 15 gunmen overnight in Baghdad where fighting has raged for weeks between militiamen loyal to Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and security forces.

Ground forces and aircraft were involved in several attacks, the US military said in a statement. The first began around dusk on Tuesday.

One hospital in Sadr City said it received five bodies overnight after clashes and air strikes. It said 22 people were wounded.

Police said it was one of the heaviest nights of clashes in weeks in the slum, home to 2 million people.

Hundreds have died in and around Sadr City since Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki launched a crackdown on the cleric’s Mehdi Army militia last month.

Sadr has demanded a withdrawal of US troops from Iraq and threatened over the weekend to wage “open war” if Maliki did not call off the campaign against his fighters in Baghdad, the southern oil hub of Basra and other areas.

Since Sadr issued his threat, which could unravel months of security gains in Iraq, on Saturday the US military says it has killed around 65 militiamen in Sadr City and other parts of Baghdad.

In one incident overnight, troops were attacked with rocket-propelled grenades after a roadside bomb exploded, the military said. Soldiers returned fire, killing six gunmen.

In another incident, it said an unmanned drone spotted two militants putting a mortar tube into a vehicle and then driving off. The drone fired a Hellfire missile, killing the two.

“Along with our Iraqi security forces partners, we are targeting individual terrorists, criminal networks, and anyone involved in violent crimes against the Iraqi people,” said US Lieutenant-Colonel Steven Stover, a spokesman in Baghdad.

Maliki has refused to back down in his confrontation with Sadr. The cleric supported the prime minister’s rise to power in 2006 but has since split with him.—Reuters