US and Iraqi troops kill 30 militants [+video]

DIWANIYA - US and Iraqi troops killed 30 Shi'ite militiamen in fierce street battles in the southern city of Diwaniya on Sunday, the US military said.

People were ordered to stay indoors during the day after explosions and the rattle of machinegun fire shook the city's central districts for more than five hours overnight.

The military said an M1A2 Abrams tank was severely damaged in the clashes that erupted after militants opened fire with machineguns and rocket-propelled grenades on US and Iraqi forces trying to arrest a "high-value" target.

The fighting underlined the chronic insecurity gripping Iraq, where an estimated 100 people die violently every day.

Police reported 28 deaths elsewhere in Iraq, including the discovery in Baghdad of the bullet-riddled body of Colonel Thamir Selman, a senior Interior Ministry official.

The US military said three marines had been killed on Friday in western Iraq, and two soldiers were killed on Saturday, bringing to 29 the number killed in the past eight days. US forces typically suffer two to three deaths a day on average.

The military said Iraqi troops had arrested the "high-value" target over the deaths of 20 Iraqi soldiers in a battle with militiamen in Diwaniya on August 28. At least 13 were reported at the time to have been executed after they ran out of ammunition.

Diwaniya's southern districts are a stronghold for the Mehdi Army militia of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose movement is a key player in Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government of national unity.

A Mehdi Army official, who declined to be named, denied any involvement in Sunday's fighting and blamed rogue gunmen. He said Sadr had issued orders to the Mehdi Army "not to attack anybody, including the Americans".

Another Mehdi Army official denied that 30 militants had been killed and said just three people were wounded.

Maliki, under increasing pressure from Washington, has vowed to crack down on militias, blamed for many of the tit-for-tat killings fuelling the Sunni-Shi'ite violence. Several, though, are tied to parties within his government and critics have accused him of lacking the political will to disband them.

The fighting in Diwaniya 180 km south of Baghdad came a day after Iraqi forces arrested 184 people and seized hundreds of weapons in a security crackdown in the restive oil city of Kirkuk, which has experienced an explosion of violence in recent weeks. The curfew was lifted on Sunday morning.

A Reuters reporter in Diwaniya heard machinegun fire from 1 am to 6 am (2pm NZT) as well as the sound of US helicopters. Residents said they saw the tank ablaze.

"An M1A2 Abrams tank was struck by multiple RPG rounds and was severely damaged," the US military statement said. Iraqi and US soldiers then "engaged the enemy forces and killed approximately 30 of the terrorists", it said, adding that coalition and Iraqi forces had suffered no casualties.

Diwaniya was quiet during the day, but there was a heavy US military presence until early evening, when residents said they withdrew to their base. The curfew was lifted for two hours at dusk as people broke their daylong Ramadan fast.

"There is an American tank on every corner of Diwaniya," said one resident, who declined to be named. "Nobody slept in Diwaniya last night. The fighting was very fierce," he added.

US and Iraqi troops have launched numerous operations in recent weeks against the Mehdi Army in their hunt for sectarian death squads accused of carrying out indiscriminate killings.

- REUTERS