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Sadr Blames 'Evil' U.S. for Violence
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It is unclear whether Sadr ordered the Diwaniyah clashes, rogue elements of the Mahdi Army rose up or individual militiamen were simply defending their homes. But the clashes and Sadr's acerbic comments underscored the fragility of his cooperation with the new security offensive.
"Up until now, we have not made any decision to clash against the American or the Iraqi forces," Salah al-Ubaidi, a Sadr aide, said in a telephone interview from Najaf.
Sadr's aides say the cleric is in Iraq, and Ubaidi added that "there is a 65 percent possibility that Moqtada al-Sadr will come to the demonstration." U.S. military officials have said Sadr is in Iran.
Among the six U.S. casualties Sunday, three soldiers were killed in a roadside bomb attack during a patrol south of Baghdad, one was killed in a separate attack south of the capital and two died of wounds from combat operations in Diyala province and Salahuddin province, the military said. An explosion near a military vehicle Saturday in Diyala killed four soldiers, the military said.
A car bomb killed 17 people and wounded 28 in an industrial area of Mahmudiyah, a town south of Baghdad, police officials said, the latest in a series of attacks in Baghdad and other parts of Iraq since the security plan took effect in mid-February.
In a second attack in Mahmudiyah, rockets pounded a three-story building, killing 15 people and injuring 30, said Capt. Muthana Ahmad of Babil province police.
In southwestern Baghdad, a suicide car bombing at a market killed five people and wounded 25. A 24-hour ban on all vehicles was imposed in the capital from 5 a.m. Monday, the Associated Press reported.
Across the city, police found 10 unidentified bodies, blindfolded and showing signs of torture -- trademark killings of sectarian death squads, officials said.
West of the town of Baqubah, police uncovered nine corpses, and in the southern town of Karbala, police found the bodies of six shepherds. They had been blindfolded and shot, and their bodies showed signs of torture, police said.
Special correspondents Saad Sarhan in Najaf, and Naseer Nouri, Saad al-Izzi and K.I. Ibrahim in Baghdad contributed to this report.
