BAGHDAD, April 19 (KUNA) -- Fierce fighting broke out on Saturday between militiamen loyal to the radical Shiite cleric, Muqtada Al-Sadr, and Iraqi government forces in the southern city of Basra, witnesses said.
The armed clashes broke out after the regulars burst into Al-Hayyaniah district, a main hotbed for Al-Mehdi Army militia, led by the cleric. The operation coincided with bursts of explosions and overflights by gunship helicopters, the witnesses said.
Leaders of Al-Sadri movement has called on authorities to lift the siege on the militia's strongholds.
In the southern Thi-Qar province, the government forces imposed yesterday a curfew while regulars surrounded several reigonal towns, police said.
The action appeared as part of a wide-scale crackdown on Al-Mehdi militia.

Separately, the US Army reported that an American soldier was killed, on Friday, in a bomb blast in Salah-Eddine province north of the capital, bringing death toll of the American forces in Iraq since 2003 to 4, 039. Twenty-seven troops had lost their lives this month alone. (end) ah.rk