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59 killed in Iraq mayhem

* Troops warn residents to leave Karbala
* Huge explosions heard in Najaf, Baghdad
* Bush says US troops will stay in Iraq after June 30

KARBALA: Five US soldiers and 54 Iraqis were killed on Saturday including militia members belonging to Moqtada Sadr’s Mehdi Army and Iraqi policemen.

Witnesses said at least two members of Sadr’s militia were killed and seven wounded in fighting near the shrines of Imam Hussein and Imam Abbas in Karbala while Brig Gen Mark Kimmitt said four Iraqi fighters had been killed.

US-led coalition forces urged residents to leave Karabala on Saturday. US warplanes flew low overhead and coalition soldiers drove through town telling people to leave over loudspeakers following clashes between US-trained Iraqi paramilitaries and loyalists of Sadr.

In nearby Najaf, after heavy fighting on Friday, at least two US tanks took up position outside the main police station about 2 kilometres from the Imam Ali mosque. A series of loud explosions were heard in Najaf on Saturday. The blasts were heard starting at about 7:45 pm (1545 GMT).

A huge blast rumbled across central Baghdad at around 10:45 pm (1845 GMT) Saturday, correspondents said.

A spokesman for the US military confirmed the blast and helicopters could be heard flying overhead.

Two civilians were killed and five wounded on Saturday during clashes between Italian troops and Shia militiamen, who also shelled the Nasiriyah headquarters of the US-led occupying force, police said.

British troops heading for Amarah from their base in Basra killed up to 20 Iraqis on Friday as the soldiers fought their way out of three ambushes, A British Defence Ministry spokesman said on Saturday.

US forces killed 21 Iraqis and wounded at least 10 in operations in Sadr City in the past 24 hours in an effort to restore stability to the capital, US military spokesman Brig Gen Kimmit said on Saturday.

In Mosul a mortar attack on Iraqi civilians lining up to join the new army killed as many as four people and wounded 17 on Saturday, hospital staff said.

Unidentified gunmen killed two policemen and a guard overnight near Tikrit, the hometown former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, police said on Saturday.

The US military on Saturday announced the deaths of five soldiers: three from wounds suffered in militant attacks, one in a vehicle accident and one from natural causes.

A rocket attack on the “Green Zone” compound that houses the headquarters of the US-led administration in Baghdad on Saturday wounded a soldier and a civilian, the US military said.

President George W. Bush vowed on Saturday that US troops would stay in Iraq after the June 30 handover of sovereignty or until the country was secure.

The US said it would scrap some inhumane interrogation techniques amid furore over prisoner abuse.

The decision to abolish a roster of controversial questioning techniques was issued on Thursday by the commander of US troops in Iraq, Lt Gen Ricardo Sanchez, after a senior Pentagon official admitted they were “not humane”. —Agencies

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