Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
BAGHDAD, Feb 2, 2006 (AFP) - A heavy gunfight broke out early Thursday between the Mehdi army of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr and US forces in Baghdad's Sadr City, killing one woman, an interior ministry official said.
The gunfight occurred between 0200 am (2300 GMT Wednesday) and 0400 am (0100 GMT), the official said.
"We have no information about the incident and are checking these reports,"
a US military spokesman said.
Sadr's militia and the US military have often clashed in the past, most dramatically in August 2004 when the fiery cleric waged a bloody rebellion against US forces in Najaf in which hundreds of his men were killed.
In a separate incident, insurgents attacked an oil storage facility near the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk setting off a massive blaze, an official with the Northern Oil Company said.
He said the attack occured at 0300 am (midnight GMT), adding "the blaze was still continuing" as the sun rose.
In other violence, the US military said two children died in the town of Hit during a gunfight between security forces and insurgents on Wednesday.
It said insurgents attacked a joint Iraqi-US patrol in which one Iraqi soldier and four other civilians were also wounded.
The gunfight occurred between 0200 am (2300 GMT Wednesday) and 0400 am (0100 GMT), the official said.
"We have no information about the incident and are checking these reports,"
a US military spokesman said.
Sadr's militia and the US military have often clashed in the past, most dramatically in August 2004 when the fiery cleric waged a bloody rebellion against US forces in Najaf in which hundreds of his men were killed.
In a separate incident, insurgents attacked an oil storage facility near the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk setting off a massive blaze, an official with the Northern Oil Company said.
He said the attack occured at 0300 am (midnight GMT), adding "the blaze was still continuing" as the sun rose.
In other violence, the US military said two children died in the town of Hit during a gunfight between security forces and insurgents on Wednesday.
It said insurgents attacked a joint Iraqi-US patrol in which one Iraqi soldier and four other civilians were also wounded.