Baghdad: Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki condemned a US raid yesterday in Baghdad’s Shiite Sadr City slum - a politically sensitive district for him - in which American troops searching for Iranian-linked militants sparked a firefight that left 26 terrorists dead.The US military said all those killed in the fighting were gunmen.

Sadr City is the Iraqi capital’s largest Shiite neighbourhood - home to some 2.5 million people - making US raids there potentially embarrassing for Al Maliki’s Shiite-led government. The district is also the stronghold of the Mahdi Army, a terrorist militia loyal to anti-American cleric Moqtada Al Sadr, who was once Al Maliki’s ally.

"The Iraqi government totally rejects US military operations … conducted without prior approval from the Iraqi military command," Al Maliki said in a statement concerning the Sadr City raid. "Anyone who breaches the military command orders will face investigation." Al Maliki last year banned military operations in Sadr City without his approval after complaints from his Shiite political allies. The ban frustrated US commanders pushing for a crackdown on the Mahdi Army.

Al Maliki later agreed that no area of the capital was off-limits, after US President George W. Bush ordered reinforcements to Iraq as part of the Baghdad security operation.

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