Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq     

    BAGHDAD, May 10 (Xinhua) -- U.S. troops fought Shiite militias in Baghdad late Friday, killing 19 militants, the U.S. military said on Saturday.

    In one incident in eastern neighborhood of Sadr City, the aircraft-backed troops killed eleven militants after being attacked by gunmen with rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire from the ground and from rooftops, a military statement said.

    In separate incidents, the troops killed eight militants in different neighborhoods of the Iraqi capital, another statement said.

    The areas where the incidents took place are strongholds of Mahdi Army Shiite militiamen who have been fighting the U.S. and Iraqi security forces for weeks.

    Fierce clashes broke out in Sadr City and some other Shiite bastions in Baghdad between Mahdi Army militia and U.S.-backed Iraqi security forces, when a U.S. and Iraqi military crackdown sparked an uprising by Sadr's Mahdi Army militiamen.

    Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki warned that Sadr must disband his Mahdi Army militia or will be barred from taking part in the provincial elections slated in October.

    Many Sadrists view Maliki's crackdown as a means to eliminate his Shiite rivals and to facilitate the political benchmarks set by the U.S. administration before the provincial elections.