15 Killed as Police, Shi'ite Militias Clash in Southern Iraq
20 October 2006
Iraqi authorities say clashes between Shi'ite militias and Iraqi security forces have left 15 people dead in the southern city of Amara.
Authorities said Friday at least 90 people have been injured in street battles between police and armed fighters from Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army.
Militiamen destroyed three police stations in the city during the fighting that began overnight Thursday.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki sent an envoy to Amara to try to quell the unrest.
In other violence, Iraqi authorities say mortar fire in the town of Balad killed at least nine people and wounded several others.
The mainly Shi'ite Muslim town in the Sunni Arab heartland north of Baghdad has been shaken by sectarian violence over the past week.
Nearly 100 people were killed in Balad during sectarian reprisals triggered by the killing of 19 Shi'ite workers last Friday.
Meanwhile, Major-General William Caldwell , a U.S. military spokesman, said Thursday that violence in the Iraqi capital has increased 22 percent in the first three weeks of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. He called the results of a highly-touted security operation in Baghdad "disheartening."
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
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