Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq     

    BAGHDAD, May 12 (Xinhua) -- Sporadic clashes between U.S. troops and Shiite militia in Baghdad killed six people and wounded 32 others, U.S. military and Iraqi police said on Monday.

    The U.S. military said that its soldiers killed three "criminals" in Sadr City during Sunday evening and Monday morning.

    Two "criminals" were killed in separate clashes in the Shiite militia stronghold of Sadr City, while the third was killed by an Abrams tank shell, the military said.

    However, a medical source in Sadr City put the toll at two bodies received by the Sadr Hospital, which also treated 25 wounded people.

    Elsewhere, an Interior Ministry source said that U.S. soldiers searched houses in the Hurriyah neighborhood in northwestern Baghdad after one of its patrols was attacked by a roadside bomb on Sunday night.

    The operation resulted in the killing of three people and the detaining of seven others, four of whom were brothers, the source said.

    The U.S. military did not confirm the incident yet, but earlier, the military statement said that one of its soldiers was killed on Sunday night by a roadside bomb explosion near his vehicle during a route clearance patrol in northwestern the capital.

    The latest clashes came despite a deal struck on Saturday by representatives of the Iraqi government and Sadr's movement that they will end weeks of fighting in Baghdad between U.S.-backed Iraqi security forces and Mahdi Army militia.