Shiite militias battle in southern Iraq

[ECH1969]

Ali Qassim al-Tamimi was killed Wednesday by a bomb planted on the highway between Maysan's provincial capital Amarah and the city of Basra farther south. He was killed along with four of his bodyguards.

Tamimi is known to be a member of the Badr Brigade, a militia linked to Iraq's largest religious Shiite party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, or SCIRI. The family maintains that the rival Mahdi Army of radical anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr was behind his murder.

The showdown between the two Shiite militias has the potential to develop into an all-out conflict between the heavily armed groups. In response to the abduction, Mahdi Army militiamen deployed across the city, enforcing an impromptu curfew and taking control of several police stations, according to police Capt. Hussein Karim and al-Sadr's media representative in Amarah, Aouda al-Bahrani. They also commandeered police vehicles. By late afternoon, the city was almost completely deserted.

Clashes erupted between the Mahdi Army militiamen and policemen defending the force's headquarters in the center of the city. Two policemen, two militiamen and four civilians were wounded in the fighting, in which mortars, rifle propelled grenades and assault rifles were used, according to Karim, the police captain.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/iraq/bal-iraq1019,0,5398254.story?coll=bal-nationworld-headlines

[whistle]

1. Are they attacking UK occupation forces?