BAGHDAD, Iraq - US and Iraqi forces swept into Baghdad's Sadr City Shiite
slum in an early morning raid Thursday, killing four Iraqis, wounding eight and
detaining five, police said.
Police officers escort blindfolded detainees at a police
headquarters, south of Baghdad, November 21, 2006. [Reuters]
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It was the fourth coalition attack
in six days on the slum, which is home to the Mahdi Army, the militia loyal to
radical anti-American Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and suspected of having
kidnapped an American soldier last month and taken scores of Iraqi hostages
during an attack on a government building in Baghdad on Nov. 14.
The US command said it could not immediately confirm Thursday's raid.
Police Capt. Mohammed Ismail said coalition forces searched houses at about
4:30 a.m. and opened fire on a minivan carrying Iraqi workers in the al-Fallah
Street area, killing four of them and wounding eight. Iraqis often pay a small
fee to crowd such vehicles and travel early in the morning to sites where they
hope to get work as day laborers.
Ismail said the coalition raid also detained five Iraqis.
Later Thursday, residents of Sadr City gathered around the minivan, which had
bullet holes in the windscreen and its sides, and blood stains inside.
