Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq

Children look at destroyed vehicles after clashes in Baghdad's Sadr City May 13, 2008, which police said killed 11 people and wounded 20 others. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    BAGHDAD, May 13 (Xinhua) -- Sporadic clashes between U.S. troops and Shiite militia in Baghdad's eastern neighborhood of Sadr city killed 11 people and wounded about 20 others, a medical source said on Tuesday.

    According to medical official in Sadr city, sporadic clashes broke out overnight in the Shiite slum, killing 11 people and wounding some 20 others.

    The U.S. military has no immediate comment on the information from Sadr city, but it said that only three "criminals" were killed in two incidents on Monday night, including two killed in an air attack while they were planting a roadside bomb in the neighborhood.

    The latest casualties came despite a deal struck on Saturday by representatives of the Iraqi government and Sadr's movement aimed at ending weeks of fighting in Baghdad between U.S.-backed Iraqi security forces and Mahdi Army militia.

    Since late March, battles flared between Mahdi Army militia, loyal to firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and U.S.-backed Iraqi security forces, when a U.S. and Iraqi military crackdown sparked an uprising by Sadr's followers.