US air strike kills two in Iraq

AIR STRIKES: Iraqi boys climb on top of an Iraqi army armoured personnel carrier destroyed days ago in clashes with Shi'ite fighters in Baghdad's Sadr City neighbourhood.(AFP)

US air strikes in eastern Baghdad where Shiite militamen are battling American and Iraqi forces killed two people and set homes ablaze, wounding three civilians, the military said on Sunday.

Two American soldiers were also wounded in Saturday's air strike, which targeted a group of people planting roadside bombs in the eastern Baghdad mainly Shi'ite neighbourhood of New Baghdad, a US military statement said.

The attack was part of ongoing military operations against militiamen in the capital, the southern port city of Basra and other Shi'ite areas of Iraq launched by Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki on March 25.

Nearly 800 people have been killed in the fighting, which is now mainly focused on Sadr City, the Baghdad stronghold of radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia.

Residents of the impoverished district of around two million people reported a lull in the fighting on Sunday, with no major overnight clashes and only sporadic gunfire after dawn.

The US military statement said an aerial weapons team (AWT) fired a Hellfire missile on Saturday at "criminals" planting a roadside bomb in New Baghdad adjoining Sadr City, killing two and destroying the device.

"The AWT engaged the remaining criminals with a second Hellfire missile. The second missile overshot its intended target and struck a coalition forces vehicle, starting it and nearby houses on fire," it said.

Three civilians and two soldiers were wounded, the statement added.

"[The] events are unfortunate and our apologies go out to those innocent civilians who were affected," said a US military spokesman, Colonel Bill Buckner.

On Saturday the Iraqi army warned residents that the streets of Sadr City are littered with roadside bombs planted by militiamen to impede the US and Iraqi forces.

Tensions between the Mahdi Army and the security forces have been further inflamed by the killing of senior Sadr aide Riyad Al-Nuri on Friday in an attack carried out in broad daylight after the main weekly Muslim prayers in the Shiite holy city of Najaf.

Sadr's movement has accused US forces of being behind the killing, and the cleric late on Saturday lashed out at Robert Gates, saying the American defence secretary will always remain his enemy because he is the occupier of Iraq.

"You have always been my enemy. And you will always be my enemy till the last drop of my blood," Sadr said in a statement.

He was reacting to comments by Gates in which he reportedly said, referring to Sadr, that those who are prepared to work peacefully "within the political process in Iraq" are not enemies of the US.

Sadr also urged his fighters not to target Iraqis "as long as they don't help the occupier".

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