Fri Apr 6, 7:01 AM ET
Iraqi and US soldiers launched a massive security crackdown targeting militias in the central city of Diwaniyah on Friday amid clashes that left one dead, officials said.
Security forces slapped a curfew on the city from 5 am (0100 GMT) with only Iraqi and US troops, armoured vehicles and militiamen visible on the streets while American helicopters circled overhead, an AFP reporter said.
"Iraqi Army troops swept into the city in the early morning hours April 6 to disrupt militia activity and return security and stability here back to the government of Iraq," the US military announced in a statement.
"Soldiers of the 8th Iraqi army division supported by soldiers and paratroopers from multi-national division Baghdad began Operation Black Eagle at approximately 6:30 am (0230 GMT)," it added.
The operation came two days after Iraq said a massive crackdown launched in Baghdad eight weeks ago was being extended to other flashpoint areas.
"Instead of showing instability and bowing to intimidation, the Iraqi government and its security forces have taken action and boldly responded to the militia threat," said US Colonel Michael Garrett.
Clashes left one person dead and 19 others wounded on Friday, said Hamid Gaati, head of the local department of health, and a security official.
Gaati accused US forces of preventing ambulances from transporting the wounded to hospital, and urged humanitarian organisations to bring casualties in for treatment.
At least 1,400 Iraqi soldiers arrived from neighbouring towns such as Kut, Babel and Najaf to raid gunmen's hideouts in Al-Askari, Al-Jumhuri and Al-Iskan in the northern parts of Diwaniyah, an Iraqi military officer said.
All entrances to Diwaniyah were sealed off until further notice "to help us to carry out security plan Black Eagle to impose the law," said an Iraqi security source in the city.
An official in the local office of the movement of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who controls the Mahdi Army milita, confirmed that its fighters and US troops were clashing around Salim Street and Al-Askari.
"Most of the clashes are in northern Diwaniyah and are because of the raids and arrests done by occupation forces against the Mahdi followers," he said, adding that top members of Sadr's movement were to meet in the city on Saturday.
The Americans believe that Sadr, a leading opponent of US troops in Iraq, has fled to Iran in self-imposed exile to escape the Baghdad crackdown.
Sadr launched two bloody rebellions against US troops in 2004 before joining mainstream politics, but the Pentagon considers the Mahdi Army to be the most dangerous threat to stability in Iraq -- greater even than Al-Qaeda.
Once one of the quieter provinces in the Shiite south, Diwaniyah has been regularly rocked by clashes between fighters and mainstream security forces, as well as between rival militias.
Last August, nearly two dozen Iraqi soldiers and dozens of Shiite militiamen were killed in such clashes.