Iraqi forces, Mahdi Army fighters clash in South

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Clashes continued into a second day Tuesday between Mahdi Army fighters and Iraqi security forces in southern Iraq, police said. Renewed fighting raged in Nasiriyah, about 320 kilometers (200 miles) southeast of Baghdad, where eight people were killed the previous day. More than 60 people were injured on Monday, most of them police, authorities said. Nine mortar shells were launched early Tuesday at Iraqi police headquarters in the town, and three policemen were injured, a police officer there said on condition of anonymity out of security concerns. A vehicle was also destroyed in the shelling, he said. Two civilians were wounded in another round of shelling in a residential area nearby, the officer said.