British, U.S. back up Iraqis in Basra

BAGHDAD, April 19 (UPI) -- Iraqi security forces gained control over a Mehdi Army stronghold in Basra with help from U.S. and British air and artillery, a military official said.

A source in the Mehdi Army, the militia loyal to radical cleric Moqtada Sadr, told The Times of London that British troops were with the Iraqis in the Hayaniya district. Last month, the Mehdi Army fought off security forces in the neighborhood.

By evening, the southern Iraqi port city was quiet and Iraqi troops were conducting door-to-door searches, The New York Times reported. Gen. Abdul Karim Khala, a spokesman for the Iraqi Interior Ministry, said the militia was not putting up a fight.

Hassan Kazemi Qumi, the Iranian ambassador to Iraq, issued a statement that was critical of the Mehdi Army and of U.S. operations in Sadr City. Qumi called the Mehdi Army "outlaws," using a term adopted by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, and said the government had the right to take action in Basra, the New York newspaper said. But he also said many innocent people would be killed or forced from their homes in Sadr City.