More Than 1,800 Iraqis Killed in August

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki meets with Shiite clerics as he visits the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Baghdad on Wednesday Aug. 29, 2007. (AP Photo/Iraqi Government) (Iraqi Government - AP)

Leaflets scattered around Sadr City urged people to report on Shiite militants who are cooperating with the Iranians.

"The criminal Iraqis who work with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards are toys under Persian control," read one of the leaflets, which pictured a puppet dancing on strings. "Iranian Revolutionary Guards are interfering in Iraq's affairs while Iraqis are dying."

In London, the Sunday Times reported Sunday that British forces could hand over responsibility for the southern Iraqi city of Basra as early as next month, citing unnamed government sources.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has consistently refused to set a timetable for the withdrawal of British troops from the country, but said a decision could be announced when Parliament returns from its summer break in October.

Following the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, Britain controlled security across southern Iraq, but has since handed over three of four provinces to Iraqi forces. Britain's Ministry of Defense has previously said it hopes to hand security responsibility for Basra, the last remaining province, over to Iraqi forces sometime this autumn.

No decision as to the precise timing of the hand over has been made, the ministry said in a statement.

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AP News Research Center in New York contributed to this report.