US and British forces battle Mehdi Army

Baghdad: US and British forces battled Mehdi Army fighters in Baghdad and Basra after their leader, Shiite cleric Moqtada Al Sadr, made a rare public appearance and called on US troops to get out of Iraq.

Five gunmen were killed in an air strike during a pre-dawn raid yesterday in the cleric's Sadr City stronghold in Baghdad, the US military said. A militant leader suspected of ties to Iran's Revolutionary Guards was captured.

In the southern oil hub of Basra, the British military said 'a number' of militia fighters were killed in an air strike overnight after they attacked British troops with rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and machineguns.

The attacks were believed to be in retaliation for the killing of the top Mehdi Army commander in the city on Friday by British-backed Iraqi special forces, the British military said in a statement. A reporter saw eight coffins at a funeral for those killed in Basra. A hospital official said 22 others had been wounded. Residents said a helicopter had attacked a group of civilians protesting against the death of the Mehdi Army leader.

The fighting came a day after Al Sadr appeared in public for the first time in months and repeated his demand for a timetable for US troop withdrawal. US officials say he has been in hiding in Iran, but his aides say he never left Iraq.

Asserting authority

Some analysts have speculated that Al Sadr had come back to reassert his authority over his militia, which the US military says has begun fragmenting into rogue splinter groups.

On Friday, Al Sadr sought to portray himself as a nationalist leader, offering to work with minority Sunnis, calling on his militiamen to stop fighting Iraqi forces, and criticising Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki's government for failing to deliver security and basic services.

The US military described Al Sadr, who led two uprisings against US forces in 2004, as "an important figure in the Iraqi political landscape". Al Sadr's political movement holds 30 seats in parliament and is part of the ruling Shiite Alliance.

"We are cautiously optimistic. We hope he comes in with the desire to reduce levels of violence," a military spokesman said.

The US military said the militant leader detained in the Sadr City raid was "suspected of ... acting as a proxy for an Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps officer" and was part of a network that organised training for militants in Iran.

The five suspected gunmen were killed when an air strike hit a column of nine vehicles that were positioning themselves to ambush US and Iraqi troops, the military said in a statement.