BAGHDAD, Iraq — U.S. and Iraqi forces on Wednesday raided a stronghold of radical anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in search of a top militia leader accused of commanding sectarian death squads, the U.S. military said.Iraqi army special forces, backed up by U.S. advisers, carried out a raid to capture a "top illegal armed group commander directing widespread death squad activity throughout eastern Baghdad," the military said in a statement.
Iraqi forces were fired upon and requested backup from U.S. aircraft, which used "precision gunfire only to eliminate the enemy threat," the statement said.
The statement didn't say whether the death squad leader was captured and made no mention of casualties. Other details were to follow, it said.
At least four people were killed and 18 injured in the pre-dawn fighting according to Col. Khazim Abbas, a local police commander, and Qassim al-Suwaidi, director of the area's Imam Ali Hospital.