U.S. and Iraqi troops killed 11 militants, many dressed as Iraqi policeman, in clashes around a mosque in the flashpoint southern Shi'ite city of Diwaniya on Monday night, the U.S. military said on Tuesday. The military said the fighting erupted after militants opened fire on a routine joint U.S.-Iraqi patrol, but a senior representative of radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in the city said the troops had been trying to arrest him.The fighting follows fierce street battles in the city. The U.S. military said 30 militants were killed and a U.S. tank severely damaged when U.S. and Iraqi troops entered Diwaniya on Sunday to detain a "high-value target". The suspect was accused of involvement in the summary execution of 13 Iraqi soldiers who ran out of ammunition and were captured during a firefight with Shi'ite militiamen in the town in August. The U.S. military did not identify the target of Sunday's raid but he was believed to be a leader of Sadr's Mehdi Army. The militia has a strong presence in the city's southern districts.
The deputy manager of Sadr's office in Diwaniya, Khudair al-Ansari, said his bodyguards had clashed with U.S. forces on Monday as they tried to arrest him outside al-Qaim mosque at dusk, as Muslims were breaking their day-long Ramadan fast. "I was expecting this. I was sure they would try to arrest me," Ansari told Reuters, adding that he had deliberately been staying away from mosques during the holy month of Ramadan.