Fighting deadly in Baghdad's Sadr City

BAGHDAD, April 7 (UPI) -- Three Iraqis were killed and 36 injured in fighting Monday between Shiite militia and U.S. and Iraqi forces in Baghdad's Sadr City, government officials said.

In Basra, eight people died Sunday when an explosion rocked a house, the U.S. military officials said. The cause of the blast was unknown, reported KUNA, the Kuwait news agency.

The fighting in Sadr City follows days of confrontations between U.S. and Iraqi forces and members of the Mehdi Army, a militia loyal to rebel Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, CNN reported.

In Mosul, an explosion wounded two police officers in the city's al-Muthanna district, when an improvised explosive device was detonated near a manned checkpoint, KUNA said.

Five U.S. soldiers died in Iraq Sunday, including two soldiers killed when rockets landed in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, the military said. One soldier was killed in an attack on the Rustamiyah base in eastern Baghdad and one was killed in a roadside bombing in Diyala province. The fifth soldier died in a non-combat incident.

All exits and entrances to Baghdad were on lockdown, with U.S. and Iraqi snipers on building tops and helicopters flying over the city.