US admits Shia unrest is 'uprising'

Fighting continued in Shia cities across Iraq yesterday in what United States occupation forces now admit is a "minor uprising" by forces loyal to the radical Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Fighting continued in Shia cities across Iraq yesterday in what United States occupation forces now admit is a "minor uprising" by forces loyal to the radical Shia cleric Muqtada Sadr.

There were renewed clashes close to two major shrines in the Shia holy city of Karbala, as anger grew across the Shia world over damage to the Shrine of Imam Ali in nearby Najaf during fighting on Friday.

In Nasiriyah, Italian officials had to be evacuated from their base as it came under attack from Sadr's Mehdi Army militia. Six Italian troops were injured. Two Iraqi fighters were killed and 20 wounded. Suspected Mehdi Army militiamen fired a mortar shell at British forces in Basra overnight, but missed. They hit a civilian home and killed four Iraqis, including two-year-old twin girls. Sadr has angered many Iraqi Shias for refusing to heed calls to defuse the confrontation and withdraw from the holy cities.

Three Iraqi women working for the occupation authority were killed in separate incidents yesterday. Two died when a minibus carrying them came under fire in Baghdad. A third, who worked as a translator, was killed when gunmen burst into her home in the restive Sunni city of Mahmudiya, south of Baghdad.