Sadr Calls for Protests to Mark 5th Anniversary of Fall of Baghdad

Moqtada al-Sadr today called for hundreds of thousands of his followers to take to the streets in protest against US occupation, to mark the fifth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad.

The Shia cleric's call to action came as Iraqi police said six civilians were killed in an air strike. The US military said the air strike destroyed a house and killed one militant.

"The time has come to express your rejections and raise your voices loud against the unjust occupier and enemy of nations and humanity, and against the horrible massacres committed by the occupier against our honorable people," said a statement released to Reuters by Sadr's office in the holy city of Najaf.

The statement called on Iraqis to converge on Najaf, a site of annual pilgrimages that often attract hundreds of thousands of Shia worshipers, on April 9.

On Sunday Sadr called his followers off the streets after a series of clashes with Iraqi and US forces throughout the south of the country and Baghdad.But his supporters say government forces have continued to round them up and lay siege to Sadr strongholds in Baghdad.

Today's air strike destroyed a house in Basra, killing one militant, the US military stated today, but Iraqi police said six civilians were also among the dead.

The attack came in an apparent change of tactics as the Iraqi government carried out more targeted raids, instead of directly taking on militia men after a week of fierce clashes that spread to Baghdad and other southern cities.

Supporters of Sadr accused the Iraqi army of violating the Iranian-brokered agreement that ended last week's fighting.

Iraqi soldiers today patrolled a Shia militia stronghold in Basra, drawing scattered bombs and bullets that wounded a camera operator for a US-funded TV station and narrowly missed the commander of government troops in the city.

But the troops met no significant resistance as a convoy of a dozen vehicles drove into the Hayaniyah district of central Basra, the scene of fierce clashes last week with Sadr's Mahdi army fighters.

Troops set up checkpoints and searched a few houses before leaving the neighborhood after a couple of hours, witnesses said. An Iraqi cameraman working for the US-funded Alhurra satellite television station was shot in the leg as he filmed the operation.

The cameraman, Mazin al-Tayar, told Alhurra by telephone that the soldiers faced "many roadside bombs and mortar rounds" during the operation, although no military casualties were reported.

One of the bombs exploded near a vehicle carrying the local Iraqi army commander, Lieutenant General Mohan al-Fireji, but caused no injuries, according to Iraqi defence officials.

Basra's provincial governor, Mohamed al-Waili, said the overall situation in the oil-rich city was "very calm and stable" and that it was returning to normal."We issued orders to all government employees to go to their offices starting from today and they will be obliged to work their full schedule," he said.

Basra residents said many people were fearful that the truce might not last. A Mahdi army spokesman in Basra, known as Abu Liqa al-Basri, said the militiamen were keeping a low profile but accused Iraqi security forces of creating a "crisis of trust" by mounting "provocative raids" and arresting Sadr supporters."If the Iraqi army continues in its provocative raids, the consequences will be bad," he said.

Despite an end to heavy fighting, the interior ministry said operations were continuing and that an April 8 deadline for gunmen to surrender their weapons remains in effect.

Violence broke out last week when the prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, launched a major operation to wrest control of Basra, where Britain has 4,000 troops at an air base just outside the city. Militias have been in effective control of the city since 2005.

The failure to gain a quick and decisive victory undermined Maliki's credibility and raised doubts about the Iraqi military just a week before the top US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, briefs Congress about prospects for further American troop cuts. Britain has suspended plans to withdraw 1,500 soldiers from southern Iraq.

While Maliki has been left weakened, Iran has emerged strengthened, as it reportedly brokered the weekend truce at a meeting of Shia parties in the Iranian city of Qom, that excluded the Iraqi government.