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Related: The Bombing Begins

Related: Battle In Baghdad

BAGHDAD – U.S. jets widened the bombing of Basra on Saturday, including dropping two precision-guided bombs on a suspected militia stronghold north of the city, British officials said.

Maj. Tom Holloway, a British military spokesman, said U.S. jets dropped the two bombs on a militia position in Qarmat Ali shortly before 12:30 p.m. No further elaboration was given on a wide variety of other strikes within the city and its outskirts.

Basra is Iraq’s commercial and oil hub, and militant followers of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr have been battling Iraqi and coalition forces in the southern city since Tuesday.

“My understanding was that this was a building that had people who were shooting back at Iraqi ground forces,” Holloway said.

The number of people killed in the latest strikes was not yet known, he said.

British jets also have been providing air support in the area.

American forces launched their first airstrikes in Basra Friday as Iraqi troops struggled against strong resistance in the nation’s commercial center and headquarters of the vital oil industry. Clashes there have sparked retaliatory fights in Baghdad and other Shiite cities.

The fight for Basra is crucial for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who flew to Basra earlier this week and is staking his credibility on gaining control of Iraq’s second largest city, which has essentially been held by armed groups for nearly three years.

Al-Maliki, speaking on government television Saturday, told tribal leaders in the southern city that he “will not leave Basra until security is restored” and those who have taken up arms against the government will be punished.

“We will continue to stand up to these gangs in every inch of Iraq,” he said. “This is a decisive and final battle.”

Al-Sadr called on his followers to defy government orders to surrender their weapons, saying arms of the Mahdi Army should only be turned over to a national leadership “that can get the occupier”—meaning the Americans their coalition allies—out of Iraq.

The order was made public by Haidar al-Jabiri, a member of the political commission of the Sadrist movement.

Sheik Nasir Abdul Hussein in Basra said several airstrikes came after midnight and were followed by gunbattles.

“The thunder of the aircraft frightened children,” he said. “The sound smashed glasses, and the area was lighted by aircraft.”

The crackdown in Basra has provoked a violent reaction—especially from al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army. Some who claim to be his followers accuse rival Shiite parties in the government of trying to crush their movement before provincial elections this fall.

Their alleged anger has led to a sharp increase in attacks against American troops in Shiite areas following months of relative calm after al-Sadr declared a unilateral cease-fire last August and recently extended it for six months.

In extracts of an interview broadcast by the Al-Jazeera television network, al-Sadr called Saturday for Arab leaders to voice their support for Iraq’s “resistance” to what he calls foreign occupation.

Many Shiite militias, including the Mahdi Army, are believed to receive weapons, money and training from nearby Iran, the world’s most populous Shiite nation.

After a Friday deadline for gunmen to surrender their weapons and renounce violence expired with few complying, al-Maliki’s office announced a new deal, offering Basra residents unspecified monetary compensation if they turn over “heavy and medium-size weapons” by April 8.

In Baghdad, Iraqi police said U.S. helicopters carried out airstrikes on the Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City Friday night. Television footage showed destroyed buildings and the smoking wreckage of at least one car.

The U.S. military said in an e-mail that an air assault it carried out last night was in the Kazamiyah neighborhood, west of Sadr City, killing 10 militants.

Allegedly, some 40 policemen in Sadr City handed over their weapons to al-Sadr’s local office, one of the policemen told The Associated Press on Saturday.

“We can’t fight our brothers in the Mahdi Army, so we came here to submit our weapons,” the policeman said on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

The police in Sadr City have long been believed by some to be heavily influenced or infiltrated by Mahdi militiamen. The AP has no independent verification of this allegation.

However, AP Television News footage showed a group of about a dozen uniformed police, their faces covered with masks to shield their identity, being met by Sheik Salman al-Feraiji, al-Sadr’s chief representative in Sadr City.

Al-Feraiji greeted each policeman and gave them a copy of the Quran and an olive branch as they handed over their guns and ammunition. There is no way to tell if the event was real, or staged for the cameras.

(AP)