Sadr City

The mayor of the Shiite stronghold of Sadr City narrowly escaped an assassination attempt Thursday, less than two weeks after negotiations he led with U.S. military officials cleared the way for American troops to move into the area. Also Thursday, four American soldiers died when two roadside bombs exploded in quick succession in east Baghdad, the U.S. military said. It also announced the death of a Marine on Wednesday in the western province of Al Anbar.

A rocket slammed into Baghdad's City Hall and another hit a downtown park Tuesday as more frightened civilians fled a Shiite Muslim militia stronghold where U.S.-led forces and gunmen are locked in street battles. The American push in the Iraqi capital's Sadr City district is aimed at weakening the militia's grip in a key corner of Baghdad and disrupting rocket and mortar strikes on the U.S.-protected Green Zone.

On a smog-choked stretch of "Route Pluto," a street haunted by snipers and bombs on the edge of Sadr City, Army Lt. Matt Vigeant was out in traffic looking for a white Opel. A suspected Shiite Muslim extremist was expected at a funeral for one of his own, so Vigeant had set up an ad hoc roadblock in hope of nabbing him or other militants expected to be among the mourners. He grew more frustrated with each passing car.

A U.S. search early Saturday for fighters allegedly linked to Iran turned into a battle in which the military said it killed 26 militants. The Iraqi government rebuked the Americans for carrying out the raid in a Baghdad neighborhood without its permission, and local leaders said many innocent bystanders had been hurt. The raid could stir further difficulties for Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, whose relationship is already rocky with Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr.

Iraqi Col. Qassim Abdul-Wahab appeared relaxed as he cruised down rutted streets in an unarmored pickup truck, Arabic pop tunes pouring from the speakers and the air conditioner cranked up as high as it would go. For the first time since U.S.-led forces invaded the country in March 2003, Iraqi soldiers blanket Sadr City, the heavily populated Baghdad district that is the bastion of firebrand Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr and his Mahdi Army militia.

The U.S. Army said they were militants. Sadr City residents said at least some were civilians, and photographs showed a dust-covered 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.

Lakes of sewage-blotched stagnant water and piles of rotting garbage still dot the streets of Sadr City. But for residents of Baghdad's vast Shiite Muslim slum, it's the filth they don't see that gives them hope. "Just a few days ago, you couldn't walk this street because the sewers were overflowing. Now they've taken care of it," said a mattress merchant in his mid-50s, who identified himself only as Abu Mustafa. "As long as there is security, the rest will follow."

It turned nasty at 5 p.m. A U.S. military patrol was navigating the pitted streets of the Baghdad slum that is the stronghold of firebrand cleric Muqtader Sadr late Sunday afternoon when it ran into about 30 members of the cleric's personal volunteer army. But militia members rebuffed orders to lay down their arms. They and supporters hidden in a maze of surrounding buildings showered the Americans with small-arms fire, pipe bombs and rocket-propelled grenades.

U.S.-led forces battled gunmen in Sadr City during two rare forays into the vast Shiite Muslim slum Wednesday, killing at least 10 people and drawing a swift rebuke from Iraq's prime minister. The American troops, who called in airstrikes as they came under attack, were searching for a kidnapped U.S. soldier and hunting for a Shiite death-squad leader, authorities said. The U.S. military said in a statement that the action had been authorized by the Iraqi government.

Iraq's civil war worsened Friday as Shiite and Sunni Arabs engaged in retaliatory attacks after coordinated car bombings that killed more than 200 people in a Shiite neighborhood the day before. A main Shiite political faction threatened to quit the government, a move that probably would cause its collapse and plunge the nation deeper into disarray.