A powerful Shia Muslim movement warned US troops on Friday not to enter Baghdad's largest Shia neighbourhood after a gun battle there on Thursday night killed two US soldiers and two Iraqis.
It was the worst clash yet between Iraqi Shia militiamen and US troops. Shia leaders on Friday were calling for restraint from their followers even as they branded America a "servant of Israel". US forces are keen to avoid alienating Iraq's Shia population, who until now have not joined in attacks against US forces seen mainly in Sunni areas.
Dozens of armed Shia militiamen stood guard at the site of the battle on Friday, outside the headquarters of Muqtada al-Sadr, a popular Shia preacher. His followers insist the building was the target of a US raid on Thursday night, although US officials deny this.
US and Iraqi versions of the battle — if it was the same battle, and both sides insist there was only one — are contradictory. Both sides agree it happened near Mr al-Sadr's headquarters in Sadr City. Residents of the neighbourhood claim that seven US tanks surrounded the headquarters at 9:30pm and fired into the compound, killing two people inside.
Seyd Hassan al-Mussawi, head of Mr al-Sadr's Jaysh al-Mahdi militia, said on Friday that his soldiers were not involved in the fighting, but the US troops were fired on by "ordinary citizens, who were defending the holy place [the headquarters]".
Lt-Col George Krivo, US army spokesman, said he was not aware of any raid on Mr al-Sadr's headquarters. He added that the battle had started after a three-vehicle US patrol was led into an ambush at 8pm by Iraqis requesting humanitarian aid. He said two US soldiers were killed and four were injured in the fighting. After the attack, a quick reaction force was called into the neighbourhood to secure the area and extract the patrol.
In a Friday prayer service to a crowd gathered outside the headquarters, Sheikh Abdel Mahdi Darraji, a representative of Mr al-Sadr, on Friday likened the US to a "terrorist organisation" bent on dominating the Middle East. He called on the US-appointed Governing Council to resign "for the sake of their honour" and warned US troops to stay away from Sadr City.
After the sermon the coffins of two "martyrs", apparently killed in the battle with US forces, were paraded through the neighbourhood, cheered by a crowd of 5,000–10,000.
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