Bombings, clashes kill 18 people in Iraq

In the early hours Sunday, US and Iraqi forces clashed with gunmen loyal to radical Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, killing at least eight Iraqis in an east Baghdad slum. The clash was certain to raise tension between US and Iraqi security forces and followers of al-Sadr who is building opposition to the country's new constitution, which will be voted on in a national referendum Oct. 15.

The attack on the three-vehicle convoy of commandos, also wounded 19, including at least 11 members of the elite unit, said Capt. Nabil Abdel-Qader.

The bombing in Hillah, a mixed Sunni-Shia city about 100km south of Baghdad, wounded 48 people near the music shop, according to Dr. Mazen Abdul-Sada of Hillah General Hospital.

Ultraconservative religious figures have deemed some music on sale in the country offensive to their interpretation of Islam.

The fighting in Baghdad's Sadr City, a Shia slum in the eastern part of the capital, erupted before dawn on Sunday. Police Maj. Falah al-Mohamadawi said a US patrol came under fire as it entered the district to arrest members of the al-Mahdi Army, the militia loyal to al-Sadr. He said US forces returned fire, killing at least eight Shia gunmen and wounding five.

Shia cleric Amer al-Hussainy, a top al-Sadr aide in Baghdad, said, however, that only three gunmen were killed. The five other deaths were civilians including a woman who were struck by stray rounds, he said.