More than 900 people have been killed in clashes between militiamen and security forces in Baghdad's Sadr City that broke out last month, a senior Iraqi official told reporters today.
"There were 925 in Sadr City and 2,605 others have been wounded," in the firefights that began on March 25th and are still continuing, said Tehseen Sheikhly, a spokesman for the government's Baghdad security plan.
Fierce clashes between US and Iraqi forces and Shiite fighters, mostly from the Mahdi Army militia of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, erupted after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered a crackdown on militiamen in the southern city of Basra.
The crackdown triggered a wave of clashes in other Shia regions of Iraq, but particularly in Sadr City, the bastion of the Mahdi Army in east Baghdad.
The clashes have also inflicted heavy toll on US forces. At least 20 soldiers have been killed in Baghdad in April, a significant number of them in and around Sadr City.
So far in April, the US military has lost 46 soldiers across Iraq, making it the deadliest month since it lost 65 troops in September 2007, according to an AFP tally based on independent website www.icasualties.org.
The military says it will continue to fight the "criminals" in Sadr City so long as they continue to fire rocket or mortar rounds from the district at the heavily-fortified Green Zone, seat of the Iraqi government and US embassy.
Mr Sheikhly, however, did not provide the breakdown of how many militiamen and civilians were killed in these firefights.
Mr Maliki, meanwhile, has vowed to disband the Mahdi Army and today even accused the militiamen of using civilians as "human shields" while fighting the security forces.
"Criminals and lawless gangs are using human shields in Sadr City ... They are following the steps of the Baathist regime," Maliki said at a press conference earlier Wednesday.
"They are trying to gain sympathy but they are using the lies and the values of the former regime."
Two US soldiers were also killed in Baghdad, the U.S. military said today, taking the American troop death toll in Iraq for April to 46.
The US military claims that gunmen have been firing at troops from rooftops, alleways and houses which often kill civilians when security forces return fire.