Amman - Iraqi security forces shot at least 20 people dead and wounded dozens more as they brutally crushed Shia protests but unrest continued yesterday in the southern Iraqi town of Nassiriya, opposition groups said.
There was "utter carnage" in the Baghdad suburb of Saddam City, witnesses said, but order appeared to have been restored in the capital and in the southern Shia holy town of Najaf, both sites of violent clashes on Saturday.
The wave of unrest was sparked by the assassination of Iraq's leading Shia cleric, Ayatollah Mohammad Sadek al-Sadr, and two of his sons in Najaf on Friday. Meanwhile, US and British aircraft attacked an Iraqi missile site and two military communications sites yesterday after Iraqi jets violated the southern no-fly zone, Pentagon officials said.
The strikes were conducted near Al Amarah and Tallil, about 170 miles south-east of Baghdad, according to US Central Command.