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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraq's prime minister Wednesday gave Shiite militants battling security forces in Basra a 72-hour deadline to surrender their weapons as the death toll from two days of fighting that threatens to undo efforts to stabilize Iraq neared 50.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki gives militants 72 hours to surrender

Followers of radical Shiite cleric urge disobedience over raids


BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraq's prime minister Wednesday gave Shiite militants battling security forces in Basra a 72-hour deadline to surrender their weapons as the death toll from two days of fighting that threatens to undo efforts to stabilize Iraq neared 50.


Iraqi Mehdi Army fighters take position during clashes in the southern city of Bara.

1 of 3 Nuri al-Maliki gave the ultimatum a day after clashes erupted in the southern oil port city and Baghdad between Iraqi and U.S. security forces and fighters aligned with the Mehdi Army -- the militia of hard-line Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

The fighting has killed 40 to 50 people in Basra, 18 others in Baghdad and left scores injured. Officials say the dead in Basra includes Iraqi troops, police, civilians and militiamen.

The outbreak of violence came as U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff were planning to tell President George W. Bush that they favor the plan to pause troop reductions after the "surge" troops are removed, military and defense officials said.

Al-Maliki is said to be personally overseeing efforts to restore order in Basra, highlighting the significance of the conflict.

Fresh firefights broke out Wednersday between "outlaws" and Iraqi security forces, according to an Interior Ministry official, who reported ongoing military operations in five neighborhoods.

Images froms the city show black-masked gunmen targeting their weapons from makeshift vantage points within the city.

Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner, spokesman for the U.S. military, told reporters that the fighting has been "difficult and challenging," as Iraqi and U.S. forces skirmish in bastions of support for al-Sadr.

The renewed violence in Basra and Baghdad has threatened to unravel a seven-month suspension of Mehdi Army activities, a much-praised cease-fire called by al-Sadr that the U.S. military says has decreased violence across Iraq.

Growing tension between the Sadrist movement and Iraqi authorities has boiled over in recent weeks, with Sadrists saying they have been unfairly targeted and detained in U.S. and Iraqi raids.

The U.S. military says it has been targeting Shiite militants who have flouted the al-Sadr cease-fire. A breakdown of the cease-fire and a renewal of street violence could affect U.S. military plans to withdraw and redeploy troops.

Iraqi authorities have identified the fighters battling security forces as followers of al-Sadr. But Bergner specified that the fighting itself is not a battle against the Mehdi Army or the Sadrist movement.

"Enforcement of the rule of law in Basra is not a battle against Jaish al Mehdi, as some suggested. Nor is it a proxy war between the U.S. and Iran as others have purported," Bergner said, making reference to the Arabic name for the Mehdi Army.

"It is the government of Iraq taking necessary action to deal with criminals on the street with weapons." he said.

A Basra city council official said that the latest fighting erupted when security forces entered Mehdi Army strongholds, where militiamen were armed with machine guns, grenades, rockets and mortars.

Basra, Iraq's second largest city and a key transport link in the country's oil industry, was seen as an early success story of the U.S.-led invasion as British troops oversaw a relative calm in the area. Watch markets smolder from latest violence ».

But spiraling tensions between local militias and government and coalition forces have produced an upsurge in violence coinciding with a British secuirty handover and withdrawl that will see troop numbers scaled down to between 4,000 and 2,500.

A British military spokesman on Wednesday said he believes the Iraqis can handle security and the political turf war raging in Basra.

"We are providing support over Basra," said Maj. Tom Holloway.

"We have combat air patrols over the top of the city 24/7 and they are offering the Iraqis surveillance. These are capabilities they wouldn't normally have and we are passing information on to the Iraqi operations center inside the city that provides them with better situational awareness."

With the stakes high in preserving the cease-fire with al-Sadr's men the U.S. military says it is making it a point to differentiate between Sadrists and "criminal elements" within the Mehdi Army.

Since the cease-fire began in August, the U.S. and Iraqi militaries have been targeting Shiite militant cells who have flouted and ignored the al-Sadr cease-fire. At the same time, they continually praise the cease-fire as a productive move.

U.S. Cmdr. Scott Rye said al-Sadr "has made clear that those who disobey his orders and the cease-fire are no longer members of his organization. What is happening is that Iraqi security forces are responding to criminal acts and working to detain and arrest criminals in both Sadr City (in Baghdad) and Basra."

An official with Iraq's Interior Ministry tells CNN that at least 18 people were killed and 110 people were wounded when clashes erupted in a number of Baghdad Shiite neighborhoods between Mehdi militiamen and Iraqi security forces since Tuesday.

The U.S. military says a coalition helicopter "engaged targets north of Sadr City in support of this operation."

In Baghdad's International Zone, three Americans were seriously injured as a result of "indirect fire" attacks on the heavily fortified pocket in Baghdad, also known as the Green Zone.

The three were U.S. government officials, embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo told CNN.

President Bush was due to meet Wednesday with his Joint Chiefs of Staff who were expected to call for a pause in the draw down of troop numbers.

Current U.S. troop deployment plans call for the last of the five "surge" brigades to leave Iraq by the end of July, leaving approximately 130,000 troops in the country at the end of the summer.


One "surge" brigade already has withdrawn from Iraq and another is leaving now.

The military leaders favor a six-week pause to see how the security situation evolves in Iraq and what long-term gains have been made, the officials said. They also want to see more continuous assessments of the security situation. E-mail to a friend

CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq and Jonathan Wald in Baghdad, Barbara Starr in Washington and Joe Sterling in Atlanta contributed to this report.