Three killed as tension remains high in Sadr City

(1 Apr 2008)

1. Wide of car wreckage on Falah Street following attack
2. Various of wrecked vehicle allegedly damaged in US sniper attack
3. Wide exterior of Imam Ali bin Ibi Talib Hospital
4. Sign reading: (Arabic) "Imam Ali bin Ibi Talib Hospital"
5. Various of injured people lying on beds
6. Various of women crying next to coffin on back of truck
7. Various of mural of Shiite clerics on side of street
8. Wide of street
9. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Ali Khashin, local resident:
"Despite the great initiative by Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr which has pleased Iraqis from north to south, the US troops are still besieging the city. And the schools and government institutions are still closed."
10. Various exteriors of closed secondary school
11. Close-up of sign reading: (Arabic) "al-Fayha Secondary School for girls"
12. Interior of empty school
13. Various of door to headmistress' office
14. Close-up of sign on door reading: (Arabic) "Office"
15. Various of empty corridors and classrooms
16. Wide of street
17. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Munthir al-Bawee, local resident:
"Sadr city has been suffering from an unjust siege for seven days imposed by the occupying troops. It also suffers from snipers at night until eight or nine a.m."
18. Wide of street

STORYLINE:

Despite a relative lull following the halting of armed incidents by the Mahdi army, the situation in the Shiite areas of Iraq, particularly Sadr city, is still tense.

Three civilians were killed and five others wounded in Sadr city early on Tuesday, police and residents said, adding that it was due to snipe fire from United States forces.

"Sadr city has been suffering from an unjust siege for seven days imposed by the occupying troops. It also suffers from snipers at night until eight or nine a.m.," said local resident, Munthir al-Bawee.

There was no comment by either US troops or the Iraqi army to verify the details of the incident although on Tuesday the US military said that an airstrike targeting gunmen in Sadr City killed six.

AP Television footage showed the wreckage of a vehicle in the location where the sniper attack purportedly occurred.

Footage also showed injured people lying in hospital beds at the Imam Ali hospital.

One woman was seen crying next to a coffin, although it could not be verified if she was mourning one of those killed in the alleged attack.

"Despite the great initiative by Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr which has pleased Iraqis from north to south, the US troops are still besieging the city. And the schools and government institutions are still closed," said local resident, Ali Khashin.

The peace deal between Muqtada al-Sadr and Iraqi government forces, said to have been brokered in Iran, calmed the violence on Monday after a week of battles that claimed about 400 lives.

However, the deal left the cleric's Mahdi Army intact and Iraq's US-backed prime minister politically battered and humbled within his own Shiite power base.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had promised to crush the militias that have effectively ruled Basra for nearly three years.

The US military launched air strikes in the city to back the Iraqi effort.

But the ferocious response by the Mahdi Army, including rocket fire on the US-controlled Green Zone and attacks throughout the Shiite south, caught the government by surprise and sent officials scrambling for a way out of the crisis.

The confrontation enabled al-Sadr to show that he remains a powerful force capable of challenging the Iraqi government, the Americans and mainstream Shiite parties that have sought for years to marginalise him.


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