Shi'ite militias attack British forces in Basra

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British forces used an airstrike as they fought off attacks in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, military officials said on Saturday, but angry residents said the strike killed eight civilians.

British and Iraqi forces came under a series of attacks for more than two hours overnight in Basra, a gateway to the Gulf and Iraq's rich southern oilfields, by insurgents using small arms and rocket-propelled grenades and mortars.

The attacks against British and Iraqi posts came hours after Wissam Abdul Qader, also known as Abu Qader, the head of anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army in Basra, was killed by Iraqi special forces on Friday.

Angry crowds carried the coffins of eight people in a funeral procession through the streets of Basra on Saturday. They said the eight were civilians killed in the airstrike.

Basra resident Abu Zahra said a helicopter had fired rockets into the densely populated Tamimiya neighbourhood.

A Reuters reporter saw a large crater in the middle of a street, while a nearby Shi'ite mosque had also been damaged.

A British military statement said a "low-flying aircraft" and other measures it described as "appropriate and proportional" were used to repel the attacks and it was believed that "a number" of militia were killed.

"The intensity of the attacks would suggest that they may have been in direct retaliation to the killing of the terrorist Wissam Abu Qader," the statement said.

British military spokesman Major David Gell would not give further details about the aircraft or the actions taken.

"The feeling on the streets is tense but it's quiet now," he said.

British officials said Qader was killed when he resisted arrest. He was suspected of involvement in planting roadside bombs, weapons trafficking, assassinations and planning and participating in attacks against British troops.

A senior member of Sadr's political movement said after Qader's killing that their response would be limited to "political resistance".

British troops have stepped up operations against Shi'ite militias in the city in recent weeks as they prepare to hand over to Iraqi security forces.

Source.