Clash between Shi'ite militiamen, US troops

Diwaniya (Iraq), Aug 28: Twenty-three people have been killed in clashes between militiamen loyal to radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and Iraqi and US forces south of Baghdad, a local official said today.

One local resident said he saw Sadr's Mehdi Army fighters load the bodies of eight Iraqi soldiers into a taxi and tell the driver to deliver them to the army.

Another resident said he saw civilians collect the bodies of seven Iraqi soldiers and load them on to a truck.

Eight civilians were killed and 70 wounded in the fighting which broke out yesterday, the general director of the Diwaniya health directorate, Hamid Jaa'aafi, said.

There was no immediate word from the US military.

Sunni Arab leaders accuse Sadr's fighters of running death squads and fuelling sectarian violence, charges they deny.

The firebrand cleric, a key member of the ruling Shi'ite lliance, staged two armed revolts against US and Iraqi troops in 2004.

REUTERS