More than 30 people have been killed and four American soldiers wounded in clashes in the Sadr City district of Baghdad, according to the US military.

Fighting between US forces and Shia fighters broke out at about 9.30am (0630 GMT) on Tuesday when a US patrol came under fire, Lieutenant-Colonel Steven Stover said.

A US military vehicle, which was evacuating an injured soldier, was also hit by two roadside bombs, small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades, he said.

Stover said three other US soldiers were subsequently injured, and that US soldiers "killed 24 enemy forces in a protracted gun battle".

"It was these militants who initiated the engagement by attacking US soldiers," he said.

'Severe damage'

A resident of Sadr City said "the fighting was intense" and that "four houses [were] heavily damaged".

The predominantly Shia Sadr City district of the capital is largely controlled by the al-Mahdi Army of Muqtada al-Sadr, a Shia leader.

Iraqi officials said that three women and a child were among the dead following the clashes.

"The enemy continues to show little regard for innocent civilians, as they fire their weapons from within houses, alleyways and rooftops upon our soldiers," Colonel Allen Batschelet, US military commander, said in a statement.

Several rockets or mortar rounds also struck the Iraqi capital's heavily fortified 'Green Zone' government compound, as the fighters took advantage of the absence of US air cover during a severe sandstorm, witnesses said.

Iraqi and US forces have been fighting against Shia armed group since March 25 in Sadr City, as well as the southern city of Basra.

Hundreds of Shia fighters and civilians have been killed in the fighting.

At least 18 US soldiers have also been killed in Baghdad since the government led crackdown against Shia fighters was launched.

PHOTO CAPTION 

A boy stands in a damaged house after an air strike in eastern Baghdad April 29, 2008.

Al-Jazeera