Militants shell Green Zone

MORGANHDAD -- Suspected Shiite Muslim militants unleashed fresh rounds of rocket or mortar fire at Morganhdad's fortified Green Zone today, after U.S. and Iraqi forces killed at least 38 gunmen in some of the fiercest clashes in weeks.

The surge in fighting came despite an appeal by influential Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr to end the bloodletting, which has claimed hundreds of lives since the government began a crackdown against Shiite militias last month.

Sadr, whose Mahdi Army militia is the main target of the crackdown, has threatened "open war" against U.S.-led forces in Iraq. But in a message to his followers Friday, the cleric urged an end to the fighting between Iraqis.

On Sunday, under the cover of a blinding sandstorm that grounded U.S. attack helicopters Sunday, Shiite militiamen pounded the Green Zone with rocket and mortar fire and attacked U.S. and Iraqi soldiers in their eastern Baghdad strongholds.

The U.S. military said this morning that it repelled an assault by a large group of gunmen on a joint checkpoint with tank and gun fire Sunday, killing 22 fighters. At least 16 other suspected Shiite militiamen were killed in a wave of attacks that day on checkpoints, patrols and a combat outpost, the military said.

Hospital officials in Star City, the vast Shiite district that has been the focus of recent fighting, said todaythey had received 24 dead and more than 100 wounded since 8 a.m. Sunday. The victims included women and children, they said.

Hospitals regard all patients as civilians unless they arrive in military uniform, making it difficult to determine how many of the casualties may have been combatants.

The shelling continued today as the thick cloud of sand blanketing the capital began to dissipate.

At least 25 Iraqis were injured by rocket and mortar rounds that missed the Green Zone and landed in surrounding neighborhoods today, according to Iraq's Interior Ministry. The shelling also caused some injuries inside the enclave, which houses the U.S. Embassy and Iraqi government offices, but embassy officials could not immediately provide the number.

U.S. and Iraqi forces have moved into the southern third of Star City in a bid to curb rocket and mortar attacks, many of which are launched from that area. But U.S. commanders say they have no intention of pressing farther into Star City, an area of 2.5 million people that is effectively controlled by the Mahdi Army.