Militia's protest sparks deadly clashes
NEW: Violence breaks out in Baghdad and Basra where 50 reported killed


BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Clashes between Iraqi police and supporters of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr spread to several Baghdad districts on Tuesday as his political movement launched a nationwide civil disobedience movement to protest recent arrests of its members.


Iraqi Sadrist Shiite clerics rally in the holy city of Najaf in central Iraq on Tuesday.

1 of 3 Rockets and mortar shells also rained down on U.S. troops around Baghdad, killing one U.S. soldier, a U.S. military spokesman said.

The fighting in Baghdad followed battles between Iraqi security forces and Mehdi Army fighters in the southern city of Basra, where at least 50 people died and 150 others were wounded, an official with Basra's Provincial Council said.

The clashes threaten to unravel a much-praised suspension of Mehdi Army activity, conceivably sparking sectarian violence that could delay withdrawals of U.S. troops.

Militiamen used roadside bombs to bring down part of a bridge in northern Basra on Tuesday, but an Interior Ministry official said security forces were in control of most of the city by Tuesday evening.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is overseeing efforts to restore order in Basra personally, said Ali Hadi, an official in the prime minister's office. He said al-Maliki met with high-ranking Iraqi security officers ahead of the operation, launched in the early morning hours, Tuesday.

The Baghdad clashes erupted around Tuesday afternoon in the southwestern neighborhoods of al-Shurta al-Rabia, al-Sowaib and al-Shurta al-Khamsa.

Mehdi Army militia fought Iraqi national police units, an Interior Ministry official told CNN. At least six people were wounded, including two police officers, the official said. Watch al-Sadr's call for civil disobedience »

Earlier clashes occurred in al-Hamza Square at the edge of Sadr City, the cleric's power base in eastern Baghdad. In Maamel, also in eastern Baghdad, gunmen attacked an Iraqi police checkpoint and kidnapped six police officers, an Interior Ministry official told CNN.


The U.S. military says the Mehdi Army's cease-fire, first announced in August, has led to a decrease in sectarian violence in Iraq. But the Americans and the Iraqi Army have continued to target Mehdi Army followers who have ignored the agreement.

Rockets and mortar attacks targeted four U.S. bases and the heavily fortified International Zone in central Baghdad that houses U.S. and Iraqi government offices, Lt. Col. Steven Stover said

One U.S. soldier died Tuesday while on patrol in the largely Sunni district of Adhamiyah when a mortar attack struck, Stover said. The fatality brings the number of U.S. dead in the five-year-old war to 4,001, including eight Defense Department civilians.

"In our assessment, rogue Shiite elements who are violating al-Sadr's cease-fire announcement are responsible for the attacks today," Stover said.

Two U.S. Apache attack helicopters attacked targets on the ground, but Stover said no reports of casualties from that incident had been received.

But the U.S. and Iraqi Army have continued to target Mehdi Army followers who have ignored the agreement.

The Sadrist movement believes troops have unfairly targeted militia members, and two days ago, tribal leaders affiliated with the movement came up with three demands for Iraqi government authorities: a halt in raids, the release of detainees and an apology.

Nassar al-Rubaie, an al-Sadr official, told reporters on Tuesday that those demands were not met, prompting the group to call for civil disobedience, such as closing businesses and staying out of school, as well as street demonstrations.

"We call all citizens to join the civil disobedience," al-Rubaie said.

The movement also has been upset lately with military operations targeting militia members, such as recent operations in the southeastern city of Kut, and the arrests of Sadrist movement senior leaders.

Al-Rubaie said government security forces comprise rival militias that have killed, tortured and arrested innocents.

Al-Rubaie tied the violence against the Sadrists to the provincial elections runup. "The police and army forces are used for political reasons," al-Rubaie said.

Other developments

At least four al Qaeda in Iraq members were killed in volatile Diyala province on Sunday in two military raids, the U.S. military said Tuesday.

The military also reported a roadside bombing on Sunday that killed two children and wounded two civilians. It occurred in Khatoon, north of the Diyala provincial capital of Baquba.


Diyala is an ethnically and religiously mixed province that stretches north and east of Baghdad and borders Iran.

The U.S. military also said it had determined that six people killed and two people wounded in an American helicopter strike near Samarra on Saturday were prospective pro-U.S. militia members -- not "terrorists" as previously suspected. E-mail to a friend