US and Iraqi forces are meeting little resistance as they sweep through Baghdad, a US officer said yesterday, a day after Iraq's president said Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr had ordered his leaders to leave the country.
The head of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, was wounded on Thursday when Iraqi forces intercepted a group of al-Qaeda militants heading to a town north of Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said.
Two Interior Ministry sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, declined to give details of Masri's whereabouts or say how security forces knew he had been wounded. They said an aide of Masri had been killed in the clash. The US military said it was unable to confirm the reports.
A Interior Ministry spokesman quoted in a report by Iraq's state TV Iraqiya and monitored by the BBC indicated that Masri had escaped the gunbattle.
In Baghdad, Iraqi and US troops were out in force yesterday, manning checkpoints and searching vehicles for weapons under a new crackdown.
US Major Steven Lamb, a spokesman for US forces stationed in Baghdad, said the offensive was going well.
Meanwhile, Sadr did not attend yesterday's prayers in his usual mosque, as some supporters had said he would, following disputed reports that he has left Iraq for Iran.
Iraqi and US officials say that the firebrand cleric, leader of the Mehdi Army Shiite militia and a powerful political movement, left for Tehran last month ahead of a renewed security operation.
Sadr's movement denied this, and some of his aides had promised that he would disprove the claims by publicly leading weekly prayers at his regular mosque in the Shiite town of Kufa, south of Baghdad.
President Jalal Talabani said on Thursday he believed Sadr had ordered heads of his Mehdi Army militia to leave Iraq.
In the US, Democrats are challenging President George W. Bush's power to wage war, contending they have found a way to block a troop increase in Iraq and prevent any pre-emptive invasion of Iran.
But first Congress will vote on a non-binding measure stating opposition to Bush's decision to send 21,500 more troops to Iraq.
The House of Representatives was expected to pass the measure yesterday, with the Senate planning to hold a test vote today.
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US legislatures pass their own antiwar clauses
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