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BAGHDAD (AFP) - The Iraqi capital's biggest Shiite neighborhood seethed with rage after at least 57 residents were killed and 236 wounded in a US crackdown on militiamen loyal to radical leader Moqtada Sadr.
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Tuesday, US tanks and Humvees stood guard at strategic positions, including police stations, in the sprawling slum district of Sadr City, which is home to more than two million people.
US armored vehicles cruised the teeming streets, with soldiers atop tanks pointed their machine guns at the crowds. Young militiamen from Sadr's outlawed Mehdi Army looked on defiantly.
Officials at Sadr City's four hospitals said a total of 57 people had been killed and 236 wounded over the past two days.
"We received 28 dead Sunday and 11 last night. As for the wounded, there were 95 Sunday and 31 Monday," said Dr Kassim Saddim Mazkur, director of the Ath-Thawra general hospital.
"The driver of one of our ambulances who was rushing to the scene was wounded and a patient killed. A pregnant woman was shot and lost her baby," he added.
The director of the Al-Shaheed general hospital, Abdul Jabbar Solaj, said his staff had received 13 dead and 88 wounded over the same period.
"It seems there was indiscriminate firing as even women and children were wounded," he added.
Most of the victims suffered bullet wounds, doctors said.
The US military was not available for comment.
Officials at two other area hospitals reported five dead and 22 wounded admitted over the past two days.
US helicopters and tanks in and around police stations repelled attacks by Sadr militants for five hours overnight, witnesses said.
At the entrance to Sadr City, English-language graffiti proclaimed the US-led coalition's civil administrator Paul Bremer "out of the law," a jibe at his outlawing of Sadr Monday.
At the radical leader's headquarters, Sheikh Amjad al-Saadi, the assistant director, told AFP: "The occupiers killed many people without reason.
"Last night helicopters shot some houses and killed many innocent people who were asleep," he said.
"The Americans must leave because relatives of the victims are angry and we cannot control the feelings of the people."
Saadi warned coalition forces against detaining Sadr, for whom an arrest warrant has been issued in connection with the murder of a rival cleric last April.
"If the Americans arrest Sadr, the consequences will be rivers of blood. Sadr supporters may send suicide bombers against them," said Saadi.
Coalition leaders have made clear that Sadr's Mehdi Army, like other militias, is outlawed under gun controls introduced last June and will not be tolerated on Iraq (news - web sites)'s streets.
The US army's crackdown in Sadr City appears to have been harsh.
Young Sadr supporters, including some wearing T-shirts bearing the cleric's picture, took an AFP correspondent on a tour of houses what were hit by what appeared to be tank and machine-gun fire.
"Four people were killed and two children had their legs blown off here last night," said Walid Khadim as he pointed to the devastated first floor of a building above the Al-Atif supermarket.
Some cars were crushed by tanks.
Sadr militiamen, some wearing green bandanas and carrying Kalashnikov assault rifles and grenades, were roaming adjoining streets.
Funeral processions for people killed overnight were underway.
One funeral was held for a woman identified as Samira Faisal Shalash, 37, who was killed in the overnight clashes, witnesses said.
Outside Sadr's headquarters, louspeakers urged civil servants to go back to work but to refuse to cooperate with coalition forces.
Residents said the area has been without power since Sunday.
Asked about the murder charges against Sadr, several young followers of the radical cleric said they were all part of "an American plot."
"We don't believe it. If they arrest Sadr, all Iraqis will rise up," said Ali Kazem, 22.
"When the Americans arrived last year, they promised to rebuild Iraq ... This is their idea of rebuilding," he added, pointing to the devastation caused by the US firing overnight.
"They should leave; we don't want them," said Arkan Jumaa, 19.
A total of 106 Iraqis have been killed and 548 wounded across Iraq in clashes between coalition forces and Sadr's militiamen since Sunday.
