No. 2 US commander hopes al-Sadr will cease attacks on Iraqi forces

BAGHDAD – The No. 2 U.S. commander in Iraq expressed hope Wednesday that radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr would use his influence to stop his followers from attacking U.S. and Iraqi forces as clashes spread to the outskirts \nof Baghdad.\nThe American military said 21 suspected gunmen were killed in Shiite militia strongholds late Tuesday, while Iraqi officials said 15 civilians were among the dead, including \ntwo women.\nThe fighting, which began a month ago in response to an Iraqi government crackdown on militia violence, has put a severe strain on a cease-fire called in late August al-Sadr. The anti-U.S. cleric threatened this weekend to unleash his Mahdi Army militia in an “open war” if the military operations persist.\nDespite heightened rhetoric by al-Sadr and his followers, U.S. commanders have been careful not to directly link the cleric to the current fighting, instead blaming Iranian-backed Shiite fighters it claims are “special groups” criminals who have broken with his movement.\n“We do not attribute what we’ve seen to JAM,” said Lt. Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, using the Iraqi acronym for the \nMahdi Army.\nBut he acknowledged that al-Sadr could stop the attacks.\n“We certainly hope that Sadr will choose the road of peace and responsibility,” Austin, who commands day-to-day operations in Iraq, said Wednesday at a news conference.\nFierce fighting broke out late Tuesday and continued through Wednesday morning in Husseiniyah, a Mahdi Army stronghold to the north of Baghdad’s embattled Sadr City district.\nSeven people were killed, including two women, and 20 were wounded, including women and children, according to Iraqi police and hospital officials.\nAmerican soldiers killed six Shiite extremists Tuesday \nnight after coming under fire as they were recovering a Bradley fighting vehicle that was stuck in the mud in Husseiniyah, Lt. Col. Steve Stover, a military spokesman, said in an e-mail statement.\nU.S. soldiers also killed 15 other suspected militants in separate attacks in Sadr City, the military said separately. The sprawling area in northeastern Baghdad has been the focus of daily clashes that broke out after Iraqi Prime Minister \nNouri al-Maliki launched the crackdown.\nIraqi officials, who all spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to release the information, said eight ci vilians were killed and 44 others wounded in fighting in Sadr City.\nOne seriously wounded man died as an ambulance speeding him to the hospital was caught in the crossfire, and an elementary school was damaged, \npolice said.\nThe clashes that have been centered in Sadr City, which has a population of some 2.5 million people, have taken a heavy toll on civilians, although the U.S. military insists it takes all possible precautions to avoid hurting innocent Iraqis.\nAt least 315 people have been killed in the area since the outbreak of fighting began March 25, according to an Interior Ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to release the information.\nThe official said no breakdown was available for the number of militiamen, civilians and Iraqi security forces. But an Associated Press count shows at least 200 of those killed have been civilians.