Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Update: U.S. Enters Battle

Basra, Mar 28, (VOI) – Hospitals in the unrest-stricken city of Basra received more than 60 bodies and 300 others wounded until Thursday evening in clashes flaring up in southern Iraq, a medic said.

“Basra’s government hospitals received more than 60 people killed and 300 others wounded in the clashes that erupted since the midnight of Monday until Thursday evening,” the medical source, who asked not to be named, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq – (VOI).

“There are many casualties that are not received by the hospitals for inability to reach them,” he said.

A medic had told VOI on Wednesday that hospitals in Basra, Iraq’s second largest city and an important oil hub that is 590 south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, received 33 deaths and more than 150 wounded, mostly civilians.

Armed confrontations have been flaring up in Basra, Iraq’s second largest city, since Tuesday between government forces and Sadr’s Mahdi Army militias. The clashes coincide with angry reactions in several southern provinces, where Sadr supporters spread.

The Iraqi authorities declared a curfew in many provinces and Baghdad to avoid further clashes that left dozens killed and wounded during the past couple of days.

Incumbent Premier Nouri al-Maliki had said on Thursday that there would be “no dialogue or concessions for the gunmen,” adding in a statement he issued two days ago that the only solution “before them (gunmen) is to hand over their weapons and turn themselves in or face death.”

Maliki on Wednesday declared a pardon for the gunmen on condition that they lay down their arms and surrender, giving them a three days’ deadline to respond to his statement.