by Karim Jamil 2 hours, 57 minutes ago
BASRA, Iraq (AFP) - Fighting rocked two Iraq cities on Thursday as security forces battled Shiite militiamen for a third day in clashes that left 105 people dead, while saboteurs blew up a key oil export pipeline.
Fighting which began on Tuesday in Basra when Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered his troops to crack down on "lawless gangs", spread on Thursday to the central city of Kut where at least 44 people died in early morning fighting, police said.
In Baghdad, meanwhile, Sadr's followers staged noisy protests against the crackdown in Basra, demanding the resignation of Maliki, who is overseeing the military operations.
The police chief of Kut, Abdul Hanin al-Amara, told AFP that among those killed during a military assault that began around midnight were four policemen and 40 Shiite militiamen.
"The security forces launched an operation at around midnight (2100 GMT Wednesday) to take back areas under the control of Shiite gunmen," Amara said in Kut, 175 kilometres (110 miles) southeast of Baghdad.
"At least 40 gunmen and four policemen were killed. Around 75 people were wounded. Police have now imposed full control on these neighbourhoods."
The offensive followed days of sporadic clashes in Kut, between militiamen and Iraqi troops, during which according to witnesses gunmen ran through the streets, burning shops and public buildings.
An AFP correspondent in Basra, meanwhile, said heavy fighting erupted early Thursday in the central Jumhuriyah neighbourhood, a Mahdi Army bastion, which was rocked by rocket propelled grenade, mortar and small arms fire.
Police spokesman Colonel Karim al-Zaidi said the convoy of Basra police chief Major General Abdul Jalil Khalaf was hit by a suicide car bomber around 1:00 am on Thursday (2200 GMT Wednesday) as it passed through the streets of Basra.
The International Committee of the Red Cross put the toll from the Basra clashes at 20 dead but other, unconfirmed reports said 40 were killed.
The port city was covered in a thick black pall of smoke on Thursday from a blast which damaged an oil pipeline transporting crude from the Zubair oil field to the Al-Faw storage facility.
Samir al-Maksusi, spokesman for the Southern Oil Company, said the pipeline had been blown up with a bomb. "The blast directly affects the exports," he said.
In the central city of Hilla, where Iraqi forces have been battling Shiite militiamen, four policemen were killed in a bomb attack, police said.
Meanwhile in Sadr City, an impoverished Shiite district of around two million people in east Baghdad, crowds gathered from 10:00 am (0700 GMT) outside the Sadr office to yell slogans against the prime minister.
"Maliki you are a coward! Maliki is an American agent! Leave the government, Maliki! How can you strike Basra?" the crowd chanted.
In the Kadhimiyah neighbourhood of north Baghdad, followers of Sadr carried a coffin covered in red fabric with an attached photograph of Maliki set against the background of an American flag.
Officials said the death toll from clashes in Sadr City Tuesday and Wednesday had risen to 30.
The Sadr movement had announced on Wednesday it would hold protest rallies against Maliki in Baghdad and the southern city of Amara, while Sadr has threatened to launch a civil revolt if the attacks against the militiamen are not halted.
On Wednesday, Maliki gave militiamen battling his forces in Basra 72 hours to lay down their arms and warned that those failing to do so would face the full brunt of the law.
Basra has become the theatre of a bitter turf war between the Mahdi Army and two rival Shiite factions -- the powerful Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC) of Abdel Aziz al-Hakim and the smaller Fadhila party.
An aide to Sadr said representatives of the Iraqi government and a Sadrist official held preliminary talks by telephone on Thursday in a bid to end the crisis in Basra.
Iraqi and US embassy officials, meanwhile said insurgents fired rockets into the heavily fortified Baghdad Green Zone causing a major blaze.
The Green Zone, which was once Saddam Hussein's presidential compound, has been repeatedly hit by rocket and mortar fire in recent days, wounding at least three Americans.
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