Iraq civilians reportedly among Sadr City dead
The U.S. Army says militants were, but photos show a child's body being pulled from the rubble.
BAGHDAD — The U.S. Army said they were militants. Sadr City residents said at least some were civilians, and photographs showed the dust-covered body of at least one child being pulled from a mountain of rubble after Tuesday's fighting.
Whatever the facts, at least 28 people were dead after the four-hour battle, the latest killed in a showdown between U.S. and Iraqi forces and Shiite Muslim militiamen over recent weeks.
Based on the photographs, it appeared that at least one of the dead was a civilian. In its captions, the Associated Press identified the boy in the bloodied shorts being carried from the ruins of a house as 2-year-old Ali Hussein.
The brother-in-law of an Iraqi journalist who works with The Times also was reported killed. The victim recently had moved his immediate family out of the neighborhood because of the fighting.
The journalist, reached by phone Tuesday night, said he was at the funeral and could not speak.
The destruction and death toll underscored the intensity of fighting in Sadr City, where U.S. forces are pursuing militants who often operate from the narrow alleyways and crowded residential sectors of the sprawling Shiite stronghold. Clashes have occurred there nearly every day since the end of March, when an Iraqi military crackdown on Shiite militias sparked an uprising by fighters loyal to cleric Muqtada Sadr.
With many of Sadr City's main roads peppered with roadside bombs and its side streets too narrow for U.S. tanks or other heavy vehicles to navigate, U.S. forces often call in airstrikes or use guided rockets to hit their targets.
Residents say civilians often are caught in the chaos.
The military says it does everything it can to avoid this. In a statement Tuesday, a military spokesman responded angrily to the accusations that troops had killed civilians in the latest battle.
"The rockets struck militants firing from buildings, alleyways and rooftops," Lt. Col. Steven Stover wrote in an e-mailed response to questions. "We are NOT targeting law-abiding civilians. Those targeted were firing weapons at U.S. soldiers."
Stover said the clashes began in the late morning as troops evacuating a U.S. soldier wounded by small-arms fire came under attack. Two bombs, followed by small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenade blasts, targeted the vehicle trying to get the wounded man to safety, Stover said.
