Gunfire was heard across the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah on Wednesday as Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia clashed with Iraqi security forces, witnesses said. At least four people were killed overnight, AFP reported. "Two Iraqi soldiers were killed, two civilians were killed, and 40 people were wounded in the fighting, most of them civilians," said Hadi Badr, the city's Director of Public Health.
The skirmishes broke out Tuesday night when local police detained two members of the Shiite militia and accused them of targeting US-led and Iraqi forces with homemade bombs and mortars, security officials said. A delegation from the Mahdi Army demanded police release the two men, but were refused, sparking the battle.
Meanwhile, the US military published the names Wednesday of seven troops killed or kidnapped in Iraq when Al-Qaeda wiped out their patrol. A Pentagon statement named three of the four slain soldiers as Sergeant James Connell, 40, of Tennessee; Private Daniel Courneya, 19, of Michigan and Private Christopher Murphy (news, bio, voting record), 21, of Virginia.
One of the troops who died in the attack was so badly disfigured that he has yet to be identified, but the Pentagon has released four names which represent this dead trooper plus his three kidnapped comrades. They are: Sergeant Anthony Schober, 23, of Nevada; Specialist Alex Jiminez, 24, of Massachusetts; Private Joseph Anzack, 20, of California and Private Byron Fouty, 19, of Michigan, according to the Pentagon.
