(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-03-25 21:43

BAGHDAD -- Iraqi forces clashed with Shiite militiamen Tuesday in the southern oil port of Basra and gunmen patrolled several Baghdad neighborhoods as followers of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered a nationwide civil disobedience campaign to demand an end to the crackdown on their movement.

Iraqi police take defensive positions in Basra, Iraq, 550 kilometers (340 miles) southeast of Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, March 25, 2008. Iraqi forces clashed with Shiite militias in the southern oil port of Basra on Tuesday as a security plan to clamp down on violence between rival militia factions in the region began. [Agencies]

Explosions rang out across central Baghdad as rockets or mortars fired from Shiite areas targeted the US-protected Green Zone for the second time this week.

The violence was part of an escalation in the confrontation between the Shiite-run government and al-Sadr's followers — a move that threatens the security gains achieved by US and Iraqi forces. At least 22 people were killed in the Basra fighting.

Al-Sadr's allies have grown increasingly angry over raids and detentions against them by US and Iraqi forces, who insist the crackdown only affects rogue elements loyal to Iran.

Al-Sadr's headquarters in Najaf also ordered field commanders with his Mahdi Army militia to go on maximum alert and prepare "to strike the occupiers" — a term used to describe US forces — and their Iraqi allies, a militia officer said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't supposed to release the information.

Al-Sadr has imposed a cease-fire on his militia fighters through mid-August, a move that is one of the key factors in a steep drop in violence over the past several months. But the truce is fraying.

Lawmakers from al-Sadr's movement announced in a Baghdad press conference that a civil disobedience campaign which began in selected neighborhoods of the capital was being expanded nationwide.

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