Report: Tensions simmering between Mahdi, Badr militias in Sadr City

Aerial view of Sadr City

Baghdad, May 5, (VOI) – Sadr City is now witnessing violent tension between "two warring factions" of Shiites, one of them believed to be militiamen from Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army, while the other are forces from Badr Organization, which belongs to Shiite leader Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim's Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), eyewintess said.

"The U.S. forces have been cordoning off outlets to Sadr City, taking measures in light of possible confrontations between the "two warring groups," the witnesses told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI) on Saturday.

Tension unfolded in Sadr City on Friday evening after a headquarters belonging to the Badr Organization came under missile attacks, followed by clashes between gunmen and the guards of the headquarters, resulting in injuries to four of them.

Meanwhile, a U.S. Hummer vehicle was destroyed in an attack by unidentified gunmen on a U.S. patrol in the eastern Baghdad neighborhood of Jamila on Saturday, an Iraqi police source said.

"The gunmen attacked the U.S. patrol with RPG-7 shells in Jamila, near Sadr City, eastern Baghdad, causing an unidentified number of casualties," the sources told VOI.

From VOI

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