33 dead as US forces battle rebels in Baghdad
US forces battled insurgents loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr throughout the Baghdad slum of Sadr City today. The Health Ministry said 33 people were killed and 193 injured in the Sadr clashes.
US Army Captain Brian O’Malley said several American soldiers have been injured.
In a separate incident, an explosion targeted the Baghdad governor’s convoy as he was travelling through the capital, killing two people but leaving him uninjured, the Interior Ministry said.
Gunmen opened fire on the convoy seconds before the explosion, hoping to direct Gov. Ali al-Haidri’s convoy toward the blast, said Interior Ministry spokesman Col. Adnan Abdel Rahman.
Three of his bodyguards were hurt in the attack in the western Baghdad neighbourhood of Hay al-Adel.
“The people behind this attack want to hurt Iraq and to hinder the progress in this country,” he said.
The governor’s BMW appeared intact, but a car next to it was totally burned. The bomb made a small crater in the pavement and the street. One person was sprawled out in the street.
Police blocked the area and prevented people from getting close to the cars.
Rahman said that a car bomb caused the blast, but al-Haidri said it was a roadside bomb.
