British soldiers raided two offices of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr yesterday and killed five militiamen during a series of gun battles in southern Iraq, according to AFP correspondents, hospital and military sources.
Armed protesters engaged in gun battles across the southern city of Basra that saw two members of Sadr's Mehdi Army killed and one captured, according to British military spokesman Squadron Leader Jon Arnold. One British soldier was wounded.
Militiamen armed with rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) and guns blocked off roads during the clashes in the centre of the city as groups of demonstrators against the US-led occupation gathered across the city, witnesses said.
British troops went into an al-Sadr office in the centre of Basra at about 10am, several hours after a patrol was attacked by militiamen at a square near the city centre, according to a correspondent.
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