BAGHDAD - Agence France-Presse


American troops fought street battles with Shiite militia in Baghdad's Sadr City killing three people on the first aaaa day of a deal to end fighting in the area a military official said yesterday.

U.S. military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Steven Stover said troops came under attack in three incidents on Sunday evening and yesterday morning in Sadr City stronghold of the Mahdi Army militia of anti-U.S. cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

Stover said two "criminals" were shot dead by U.S troops in two confrontations while the third was killed by a tank shell.

Medical and police sources in Sadr City a teeming slum area where two million Iraqis live said two bodies had been brought to the main hospital together with 25 wounded people.

The latest skirmishes came despite a deal announced on Saturday by the Iraqi government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and Sadr's movement that they will end the violence in Sadr City.

Stover said there were no rocket attacks from the Sadr City area during the past 24 hours but that seven mortar rounds were fired in west Baghdad although there were no casualties in those attacks.

One of the main issues fuelling fighting in Sadr City has been the U.S. military's construction of a huge barrier in the southern section of the shantytown to control the access of residents.

Stover said construction will continue despite the deal after the U.S. military said on Sunday it was 80 percent completed.There was no immediate comment from the Sadr movement.