Events & Pictures: Iraqi security forces handed over their weapons in Sadr City

An Iraqi army armoured vehicle burns outside the al-Iraqiya television network in Basra, 550 km (340 miles) south of Baghdad, March 30, 2008. The al-Iraqiya television building, which was guarded by government soldiers, has been overrun by the fighters from the Mehdi army after clashes in Basra on Sunday, a fighter from the Mehdi army said.
REUTERS/Atef Hassan (IRAQ)

An Iraqi woman reacts as she watches Mahdi Army fighters storm a state al-Iraqiya TV facility in Basra, Iraq, Sunday, March 30, 2008. Mahdi Army fighters stormed a state TV facility in the southern city of Basra on Sunday, forcing Iraqi military guards surrounding the building to flee and setting armored vehicles on fire.
(AP Photo/Nabil al-Jurani)

A woman cries after an airstrike in Basra, Iraq, Saturday, March 29, 2008. A U.S. warplane strafed a house in a southern Iraqi city and killed eight civilians, including two women and one child, Iraqi police said Saturday. The U.S. military had no immediate comment on the report.
(AP Photo/Nabil al-Jurani)

Relatives load the coffins of Mohammed Rijab, a primary school headmaster, and his three children, 22 and 10 year old sons and a 20 year old daughter, who were killed after witnesses said gunmen riding Iraqi Army Humvees broke into their home in Basra, Iraq, Saturday, March 29, 2008.
(AP Photo/Nabil al-Jurani)

Men rest after digging graves for Mehdi fighters who were killed in clashes in Baghdad, in a cemetery in Najaf, 160 km (100 miles) south of Baghdad March 29, 2008. The death toll mounted on Saturday in fighting in Baghdad where U.S. forces have been drawn deeper into an Iraqi government crackdown on militants loyal to Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
(Ali Abu Shish/Reuters)


The first group of soldiers in the new Iraqi army march at their graduation ceremony at Kir Kush, Iraq, in this Oct. 4, 2003 file photo. The 700 recruits who graduated make up the first of 26 battalions planned over the next year. The recruits, who completed two months of training, will be paid at least $60 per month.
(AP Photo/Greg Baker, File)












Members of the Iraqi security forces hand over their weapons to a member of Moqtada al-Sadr's office in Baghdad's Sadr City March 29, 2008. In Baghdad's Sadr City, Sadr's main stronghold, a group of Iraqi police and soldiers surrendered themselves and their weapons to the local Sadr office, a Reuters photographer said. The spokesman for Iraqi security forces in Baghdad, Major-General Qassim Moussawi, sought to play down the desertions, saying he had received reports of only 15 men surrendering. He said those who did so would be court-martialled.
REUTERS/Kareem Raheem (IRAQ)




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By KIM GAMEL, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 23 minutes ago



BAGHDAD - A U.S. warplane strafed snipers in the southern city of Basra, killing at least 16 suspected militants after Iraqi troops came under heavy fire, the American military said.

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Iraqi police earlier claimed eight civilians, including two women and a child, had been killed in a predawn airstrike in the Hananiyah neighborhood, a known Shiite militia stronghold.

But Maj. Brad Leighton, a U.S. military spokesman, said U.S. and Iraqi special operations forces had identified snipers on several roofs before the strike was ordered.

An AC-130 gunship then opened fire on enemy positions on three roofs.

"Initial reports indicate 16 criminal fighters were killed," he said in an e-mail response to a query by The Associated Press.

The American support occurred as Iraqi troops struggled against strong resistance from militia fighters in Basra, where Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has vowed to keep up the fight despite mounting anger among followers of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

The government crackdown has prompted retaliation elsewhere in Shiite areas in Baghdad and other cities in the oil-rich south.

American jets were first called to attack militia positions in Basra on Friday, four days after al-Maliki launched the operation to clear the city of militia violence.

The airstrike followed fierce clashes between the Iraqi security forces and Shiite militiamen, Leighton said in the first confirmation of the airstrikes by the U.S. military.

Iraqi ground forces also killed four suspected militants after coming under unrelenting fire by small arms and rocket-propelled grenades during a raid in a known criminal stronghold in western Basra, Leighton said.

Two women and five children were found unharmed in the targeted building, according to the statement. It added that two more extremists were killed after the Iraqi troops came under attack again from surrounding buildings.

During the gunbattle, Iraqi commandos "and a supporting U.S. special forces team identified additional armed criminal elements on several rooftops in the area," and called in the airstrike, Leighton said.

U.S. jets also dropped two precision-guided bombs later Saturday on a suspected militia stronghold at Qarmat Ali north of the city, British military spokesman Maj. Tom Holloway said.

"My understanding was that this was a building that had people who were shooting back at Iraqi ground forces," Holloway said.

Leighton said he had no further information on that airstrike.