US-led coalition jets dropped bombs in Basra overnight, directly entering the fray for the first time since the Iraqi army launched a crackdown on Shiite militia, the British military said Friday. The bombing came as Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki offered Basra residents a cash-for-weapons deal to cut the arms flow to Shiite militia in a bid to end violent clashes that have cost more than 150 lives. Maliki gave Basra residents until April 8 to surrender heavy and medium weapons used against Iraqi army forces in fierce fighting that has engulfed Shiite areas across the country since Tuesday. The prime minister's move was part of a three-pronged effort to break Shiite resistance, along with the imposition of a three-day curfew in Baghdad and precision bombing by the US-led coalition. Coalition forces and Iraqi authorities also shut down the crossings on the Iraq-Iran border to prevent weapons being smuggled in to Shiite militants fighting Iraqi troops in the southern oil city. Two bombing missions were carried out against specific targets overnight, British military spokesman Major Tom Holloway said. “It was on identified rocket teams in the city and there was a concentration of militia troops which was bombed,” he said, adding that the bombings were the first by the coalition forces since Iraqi military operations started in Basra on Tuesday. Coalition forces have also been providing air support, surveilance and were refueling Iraqi helicopters and transport planes, Holloway said at Basra airport, where the British contingent of around 4,100 troops are based. “Coalition forces are providing capability in those niche areas that the Iraqi armed forces don't have,” Holloway said. Fighting has raged in other Shiite strongholds such as the central city of Kut, Nasiriyah in the south, Hilla and Baghdad's Sadr City, Iraqi and US military officials said. Sadr City, the bastion of Moqtada Al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia, accounts for a large chunk of the death toll so far and on Friday the US military said it killed 26 “terrorists” in Baghdad on Thursday, including several in Sadr City. Despite the crackdown, fresh clashes killed at least eight people, including five policemen, two gunmen and one civilian in Nasiriyah on Friday, a local police official said. Meanwhile, mortar rounds struck the office of Sunni Vice-President Tareq Al-Hashemi in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, wounding two of his guards. Maliki's offensive drew praise from US President George W. Bush, who called the fighting in Basra a “positive moment” for the development of Iraqi security forces and proof the Baghdad government could defend itself. __
