Many die in Iraq street battles

October 08, 2006

US and Iraqi forces say they killed 30 fighters loyal to the radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in street battles, which raged for five hours in the Shia city of Diwaniya. A spokesman for the Shi'ite Mehdi Army denied its forces were involved in the clashes. The Iraqi government is under intense pressure to rein in the militias, blamed for many of the tit-for-tat killings fuelling the Sunni-Shia violence that is driving Iraq toward all-out civil war.