U.S. Forces Raze Cleric's Office

16 Iraqis Killed in Heavy Fighting in Baghdad Neighborhood

BAGHDAD, May 10 -- U.S. forces destroyed one of two Baghdad offices of radical Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada Sadr early Monday during six hours of fighting in which 16 Iraqis were killed.

Tanks, Bradley Fighting Vehicles and two Apache attack helicopters pummeled Sadr's building. Witnesses said the battle was the worst they had seen since three days of heavy clashes in early April.

"There were dead bodies in the streets," said Adel Abdul-Lateef, 37, who owns a bookshop near the demolished building. "I knew three of them. One worked at a bakery that was set on fire by one of the bombs."

Meanwhile in Fallujah, where Sunni Muslim rebels last month fended off several Marine advances, former members of Saddam Hussein's army escorted U.S. troops into the center of the city without incident. It was the first joint patrol of Fallujah since the creation of an Iraqi brigade to take over responsibility for security in the city.

But the situation remained volatile in the Sadr City district of Baghdad. Residents have largely stayed indoors since the fighting began Saturday night, when soldiers raided the Sadr building, detaining two of the cleric's top lieutenants and confiscating ammunition and four duffel bags containing documents and computer disks. On Sunday, schools were closed as young militiamen made a show of force on the streets.

"We are so scared and worried, especially after Moqtada's call giving the green light to attack the coalition forces," said Salim Aziz, 35, who works in a factory that produces leather handbags.

The persistence of the fighting threatens American plans to reduce violence nationwide in advance of the scheduled June 30 handover of sovereignty to a new Iraqi government.

In Sadr City, which is named for Sadr's father, who was killed when Hussein was in power, militiamen loyal to the younger Sadr battled U.S. troops with mortars, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and assault rifles starting at 10:30 p.m. Sunday.

The 1st Cavalry Division, which controls Baghdad, said its soldiers killed 14 militiamen who were firing rocket-propelled grenades, one man who fired a mortar at an Army base and one gunman who attacked a patrol with small-arms fire.

Col. Robert Abrams, who commands the division's 1st Brigade Combat Team, said that five insurgents were wounded in the fighting, but Abed Falih Soudani, a physician at Martyr Sadr Hospital, reported nine injured, all from gunshot wounds.

Several U.S. soldiers were wounded by shrapnel, Abrams said, but none was seriously injured.

Sadr has been holed up around Najaf, a Shiite holy city in the south, for a month. The Reuters news agency quoted Sadr's chief aide, Qays Khazali, as saying from Najaf that "we have now entered a second phase of resistance. There will be volcanic eruptions."

The climax of the nighttime battle came at 2:30 a.m., when Sadr's office was leveled. An earlier office building on the same site had been demolished on April 7 but was rebuilt within three days by Sadr's followers.

Abrams, whose brigade patrols Sadr City, said the raid on the building followed a three-week pursuit of Amr Husseini, whom Abrams described as the leader of Sadr's bureau in Sadr City.