US forces killed 45 Shia militiamen in Baghdad in fierce fighting that included a tank battle with dozens of gunmen who attacked a checkpoint under cover of a dust storm, military officials claimed today.
The US military said the checkpoint attack last night sparked the biggest battle in the city since Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki cracked down on militias a month ago.
It said 22 gunmen died in the assault. Another 23 were killed in other battles since yesterday in and around the eastern Baghdad slum district of Sadr City, stronghold of anti-American Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
The fighting showed some members of the cleric's Mehdi Army militia have apparently defied his order to observe a truce, raising questions about how much he controls his followers.
US and Iraqi troops have been locked in a month of fighting with militiamen since Mr Maliki, himself a Shia, ordered the offensive in the southern oil city of Basra.
They have taken over about a quarter of Baghdad's Sadr City where Sadr's fighters held sway.
Yesterday's attack was accompanied by multiple rocket attacks on the Green Zone government and diplomatic compound in central Baghdad.
US troops fired tank guns tanks to repel the raid on the checkpoint. Other fighters fled.
Officials at Sadr City's two hospitals said they had received eight bodies and treated 72 wounded.
Mr Maliki says the crackdown is designed to disarm militias, but Sadr's followers see it as an effort to sideline the mass movement before provincial elections in October.
The movement, competing in local polls for the first time, could do well at the expense of Shia parties backing Mr Maliki.
The attacks in Baghdad have coincided with dust storms and were launched despite a call by Sadr on Friday for calm.
The dust storms have grounded Apache attack helicopters, the main weapon used by US forces to hunt militants firing rockets and gunmen roaming the streets.
"We are aware of the rise in attacks and how they correspond to bad weather," said a US military spokesman in Baghdad.
At the United Nations, Washington accused Iran of fuelling the clashes, saying it was training and supplying weapons to militias - which Tehran denies.
"The recent clashes between criminal militia elements and Iraqi government forces in Basra and Baghdad have highlighted Iran's destabilising influence and actions," Washington's UN ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad told the Security Council.