Report: U.S. sets up blockade around Husseiniyah, police tell residents to leave

Above: Soldiers from the 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team and Iraqi police inspect a car at a traffic control point in Husseiniyah two weeks ago. Fighting broke out this weekend when U.S. forces were fired upon and ordered an airstrike, setting off 7 secondary explosions. The military said six militants were killed and five wounded, but Iraqi officials said 18 civilians had been killed and 21 wounded in the attacks.

U.S. and Iraqi forces blocked access to a town on the northeast outskirts of Baghdad where Shiite gunmen were dug in for a third day Monday behind earthen barriers. Police issued calls for residents to leave the town and some said they were running out of food and fuel...

Reacting to the blockade of Husseiniyah, the Shiite-dominated parliament said Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki should intervene to end the crackdown by U.S. and Iraqi forces on the known Mahdi Army stronghold northeast of the capital.

The town straddles the highway to Baqouba, where U.S. forces are in the second month of a drive to cleanse that region of al-Qaida in Iraq...

Lt. Col. Michael Donnelly, spokesman for U.S. forces north of Baghdad, said American and Iraqi forces were now letting "commercial vendors to bring food to the south of Husseiniyah. Civilians are authorized to walk to these vendors to buy food. Donkey carts may be used, but no vehicle movement is authorized. We are also allowing civilians that need medical aid, to walk to the Hamid Shaub Hospital for free treatment."

Read the rest at AOL News