BAGHDAD, April 6, (Agencies): Iraqi troops backed by US forces battled gunmen in Baghdad’s Sadr City on Sunday in the heaviest fighting in the capital since Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr pulled his militiamen off the streets a week ago. Police said at least 22 people were killed in the clashes. Officials at Sadr City’s two hospitals said at least 16 bodies had been brought in while 78 wounded people were treated. Iraqi soldiers were moving through two southern sectors of the Shi’ite slum and stronghold of Sadr’s Mehdi Army militia, said US military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Steven Stover. US helicopters fired at least two Hellfire missiles, killing nine fighters, he added. The fighting follows a week of relative calm after a crackdown by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Sadr followers led to battles across the capital and the south late last month. The unrest comes two days before US Ambassador Ryan Crocker and US commander General David Petraeus are due to deliver key testimony to the US Congress on progress in Iraq.

Police said the joint US-Iraqi military operation began early on Sunday. Gunfire could be heard throughout the day in Sadr City, home to 2 million people in eastern Baghdad. Lieutenant-General Abboud Qanbar, head of the Iraqi military in Baghdad, reiterated an order from Maliki for all armed groups to hand in their weapons. “If they refuse to surrender their arms, we will confiscate them,” Qanbar told reporters at a police station in Sadr City. Mehdi Army fighters bristled at the raids. “I have lost my cousin in these clashes today. I think Maliki will be happy now,” a Mehdi Army street commander giving his name as Abu Ammar told Reuters. US Apache helicopter gunships swooped overhead and a column of black smoke towered over the Jamila market, a vast bazaar on the edge of the slum that supplies food for much of the eastern half of the capital. “Criminals fired rockets and they hit the Jamila market. I don’t know how many people they killed,” Stover said. An Interior Ministry source said the fire blazed unchecked for hours because firefighters were unable to reach the market.

US and Iraqi forces have imposed a blockade on vehicle traffic in and out of Sadr City for two weeks. Residents of the besieged district describe skyrocketing food prices, rubbish piling up and claustrophobia from being trapped indoors.  “We haven’t been able to sleep since this fighting started two weeks ago,” said Wardan Ali, a student from Sadr City forced to walk 10 km (6 miles) on foot each way to university because of the blockade.  Sadr’s bloc in parliament denounced the raids. “The intervention of US forces is horrible and unjustified. Some people in Sadr city believe these forces will hunt and kill them,” said Hassan Hashem, a Sadrist member of parliament’s security committee.
Near the northern city of Mosul, at least 40 students on a bus were kidnapped by gunmen for several hours before Iraqi security forces freed them, said Brigadier-General Khalid Abdul-Sattar, security spokesman for Nineveh province.

The incident was a reminder of continuing unrest in the mixed and Sunni Arab areas of the north at a time when attention is focused on violence in Shiite areas in Baghdad and the south.  “These are terrorist groups linked to al-Qaeda and Saddam’s former regime who are terrorising innocent people constantly,” government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told Al Arabiya television. Sunni Islamist al-Qaeda has regrouped in northern provinces after being pushed out of western Anbar province and Baghdad by a series of military offensives. The US military says Mosul is al-Qaeda’s last major urban stronghold in Iraq. Sunday’s fighting in Sadr City followed a joint call by Iraq’s main factions, apart from the Sadrists, for all militias to hand over weapons, an apparent attempt to isolate Sadr. Sadr has called for 1 million Iraqis to march against US “occupiers” on Wednesday, when Crocker and Petraeus are due to conclude two days of testimony before the US Congress. The two top US officials in Iraqi are expected to call for a pause in American troop withdrawals after 20,000 US soldiers return home over the next four months.

Republican presidential hopeful John McCain said Sunday that Iraq’s military performed “pretty well” in its recent Basra assault despite the “mixed” results of the battle. Speaking on Fox News, the senator and presumed Republican nominee for president defended the Iraqi government under Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki as increasingly effective in managing the war-torn country. “Now, obviously, the results were mixed,” McCain said of the Basra attack against Shiite militia. “Obviously, there were problems and Maliki in my view should have waited until we had concluded the battle of Mosul,” he said in the interview recorded on Friday. “Overall, the Iraqi military performed pretty well. ... eight or nine months ago, it would have been unthinkable,” said McCain, a staunch supporter of the war effort who opposes an early withdrawal of US troops.

Goals
The United States is no closer to achieving its goals in Iraq than it was a year ago but a quick military withdrawal could lead to massive chaos and even genocide, according to a report released Sunday by a US think tank.
The US Institute of Peace report was written by experts who advised the Iraq Study Group, a panel mandated by Congress to offer recommendations on US policy in Iraq in 2006.
The report was released two days before top commander Gen David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker brief Congress on the situation in Iraq and prospects for American troop reductions. Their recommendations, which US President George W. Bush has signaled he will accept, could largely determine the course of action in Iraq for the coming year.
The report cited security improvements in Iraq since the buildup of US forces in 2007, but credited factors outside US control, such as help from mostly Sunni fighters who turned against al-Qaeda and a truce by a Shiite militia.
“The US is no closer to being able to leave Iraq than it was a year ago,” it concluded. “Lasting political development could take five to ten years of full, unconditional US commitment to Iraq.”
A substantial reduction of US troops in Iraq risks “a complete failure of the Iraqi state, massive chaos and even genocide,” it warned.
The US Embassy in Baghdad did not immediately respond to an e-mailed request for comment.

Iraq’s major Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish parties have closed ranks to pressure anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr into disbanding his Mahdi Army militia or be barred from political life, lawmakers and officials involved in the effort said Sunday.
They said a first step would be to add language to a draft election bill banning parties that operate militias from fielding candidates in provincial balloting this fall.
“We want the Sadrists to disband the Mahdi Army. Just freezing it is no longer acceptable,” said Sadiq al-Rikabi, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. “The new election law will prevent any party that has weapons or runs a militia from contesting elections.”
Such a bold move risks a violent backlash by the Mahdi militia. If it succeeds, however, it would mark a major realignment of Iraq’s political landscape.
US officials have been pressing Iraq’s government for years to disband the militias, including the Mahdi Army. All major political parties are believed to maintain links to armed groups, and previous efforts to disband them have failed.
But the militia issue has taken on new urgency after the flare-up of fighting which began after al-Maliki launched a major operation March 25 against Shiite extremists in Basra. The fighting quickly spread from the southern port city to Baghdad and elsewhere.

Also
WASHINGTON: US private security firm Blackwater’s deal to protect American diplomats in Baghdad will be extended for a year while the FBI investigates a 2007 incident in which the company’s guards are accused of killing 17 Iraqis, the State Department said on Friday.
“I have requested and received approval to have task order six — which Blackwater has to provide personal protective services in Baghdad — renewed ... for one year,” the head of diplomatic security, Gregory Starr, told reporters.
The September 2007 shooting incident in Baghdad enraged the Iraqi government and triggered an investigation by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation into what happened and whether any crimes might have been committed.
A measure issued by the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority in 2004 prevents foreign security contractors from being prosecuted in local courts. It is unclear whether they could be prosecuted under US law.