Heavy fighting erupted in a bastion of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's militia in Basra yesterday, witnesses said, as military operations against gunmen in the southern city entered a third day.
An AFP correspondent said rocket propelled grenades and mortar, machine guns and small arms fire rocked the central Jumhuriyah neighborhood from early morning.
Iraqi troops launched security operations on Tuesday in neighborhoods controlled by Sadr's Mehdi Army militia under orders from Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to rid the city of "lawless gangs."
Fighting has spread to Sadr's stronghold in Baghdad and other cities, with at least 50 people killed in the clashes countrywide since Tuesday, Iraqi officials said.
Police spokesman Colonel Karim al-Zaidi said the convoy of Basra police chief Major General Abdul Jalil Khalaf was hit by a suicide car bomber around 1am yesterday as it passed through the streets of the city.
"Three policemen were killed in the attack," Zaidi said, adding that Khalaf was unharmed.
Residents said the streets of the oil-rich city of 1.5 million people, the economic nerve center of Iraq, were deserted yesterday and that shops and businesses were shut.
Maliki on Wednesday gave militiamen battling his forces in Basra 72 hours to lay down their arms and warned that those failing to do so would face the full brunt of the law.
Basra has become the theater of a bitter turf war between the Mehdi Army and two rival Shiite factions -- the powerful Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council of Abdel Aziz al-Hakim and the smaller Fadhila party.
The three factions are fighting to control the huge oil revenues generated in the province, which was transferred to Iraqi control by the British military in December.
Sadr's powerful movement called protest rallies yesterday "to express no confidence in the Maliki government" in the wake of the Basra assault.
US military spokesman Major General Kevin Bergner told a news conference on Wednesday that 2,000 extra Iraqi security forces had been sent to Basra for the operation.
He said it was aimed at improving security in the city ahead of provincial elections in October.
"The prime minister's assessment is that without this operation there will not be any hopeful prospect of improving security in Basra," Bergner said.
Meanwhile, followers of Sadr staged demonstrations in Baghdad denouncing Maliki yesterday after he launched a crackdown on Shiite militia in the southern city of Basra.
The protests began around 10am outside the office of the Sadr movement in its Baghdad bastion, the impoverished Sadr City district of some 2 million people.
"Maliki you are a coward! Maliki is an American agent! Leave the government, Maliki! How can you strike Basra?" the crowd shouted as they began gathering in the area while Iraqi and US troops sealed off the streets.
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