NAJAF/BAGHDAD, Aug 29: Sixteen Iraqis have died in US air raids on Fallujah and in battles between militia and US soldiers in the Baghdad Shia suburb of Sadr city since Saturday, a spokesman for the health ministry said in the Iraqi capital on Sunday.
Ten people have died and 26 were injured in clashes between Moqtada Al-Sadr's "Mahdi army" and US soldiers. At least six people have died in Fallujah and 20 people were injured, the spokesman said.
Al-Sadr spokesman Sheikh Ahmad Al-Shibani told Deutsche Press-e- Agent ur that the Mahdi had not given up resistance in the country. "The Mahdi army is a popular resistance," Al-Shibani said. "The Mahdi army militia is ready now to stand in front of the occupation force anywhere in Iraq."
The prime minister of the interim Iraqi government, Iyad Allawi, in response said that the government would not tolerate a private army and would take action against such an army.
Meanwhile, local media citing police sources reported clashes between insurgents and US soldiers in the northern Iraqi town of Tel Afar in which 35 Iraqi civilians were injured. Police said most of the injured were women and children caught in the cross fire. The US military claimed two Iraqi insurgents were killed.
In Najaf Sunday morning, police raided an office of Grand Ayatollah Kadhim al-Husseini al-Hairi's representative and arrested several men, according to his supporters. Al-Husseini al-Hairi is believed to be Al-Sadr's mentor and he spent 25 years in the Iranian city of Kom.
Al-Husseini al-Hairi is more conservative than Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, who managed to persuade Al-Sadr's militia to withdraw from holy sites in Najaf on Friday. Also a spokesman for Al-Sadr in Basra told Arabic broadcaster al- Jazeera that Mahdi Army fighters were not responsible for an explosion at a pipeline near the southern oil fields of Rumeilah.
In Baghdad, 250 people demonstrated before the government headquarters on Sunday for an end to the armed conflict. The participants reportedly carried signs saying "No to War, Yes to Islam".
TALKS: Meanwhile, the Iraqi government and the office of Shia leader Moqtada Sadr held talks on Sunday to try to end continued fighting in Baghdad. The talks, convened a day after at least six people were killed and 92 wounded in clashes with US troops, were due to continue on Monday, police and Sadr aides said.
"We will reach a deal with the government tonight. There are some unsettled differences and we hope that tonight we will reach a deal," the head of the cleric's Sadr City office, Sheikh Yusif al-Nasir, told AFP. -dpa/AFP