Fighting in Baghdad's Sadr City district between militiamen and U.S.-backed Iraqi forces has killed 19 Iraqis and wounded 111 since early Thursday, Iraq's Health Ministry said on Friday. An official with the ministry's operations centre said fighting in Najaf had left one Iraqi dead and 25 wounded over the same period. In the southern city of Nassiriya, six have been killed and 13 wounded, he said. Since Thursday, U.S., British and Italian forces have been battling militiamen loyal to cleric Moqtada al-Sadr across southern Iraq and in the Sadr City neighbourhood of Baghdad. In Basra, where British troops are reponsible for security, two militiamen were killed in gun battles on Thursday, the British military said.
