Muqtada al-Sadr Threatens War

12 terrorists from Muqtada al Sadr's militia were killed in fighting in Baghdad as they attacked US troops. Muqtada threatens war if a crackdown against his militia persists. I say continue the crackdown and take out the dentist fearing Iranian puppet. Associated Press

BAGHDAD (AP) — U.S. troops killed 12 militants during an "uptick" in fighting Sunday, the military said, as fierce clashes broke out in Baghdad's Sadr City district after radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr warned he will declare war if a crackdown against his followers persists.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, meanwhile, arrived in Baghdad on Sunday for a trip she said was intended to promote fresh political gains she sees to be flowing from the government-led assaults on radical militias.

Rice told reporters she sees signs that last month's assaults on militia forces in Basra have brought sectarian and ethnic groups together in an unprecedented way, and she said she wants to capitalize on that cohesion.

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The deadliest battle in Sadr City occurred just before 8 a.m. when gunmen attacked a U.S. checkpoint with machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and mortar shells, a military spokesman said.

The Americans fought back, killing the seven militants, then shot to death two Iraqi snipers firing at them from a nearby rooftop as local nationals arrived to remove the bodies, according to the spokesman, Lt. Col. Steve Stover.

Three other militants were killed while trying to plant roadside bombs at about 6:43 a.m. elsewhere in Sadr City, Stover said.

He added that U.S. troops also clashed with militants elsewhere in Baghdad, but no deaths were reported in those incidents.

Sadr City, a sprawling district of some 2.5 million people in eastern Baghdad, has seen daily clashes between U.S.-backed Iraqi forces who have launched a crackdown against Shiite militias led by al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia.

But Stover said the fighting on Sunday was among the fiercest.