Baghdad - Baghdad's military command on Sunday extended indefinitely a round-the-clock curfew as a crackdown on the Shiite Mahdi Army militia continued in the east of the capital. At the same time members of the al-Sadr Bloc, the army's political wing, urged the United Nations to intervene to allow medical supplies into the scene of fighting.
The curfew was to expire Sunday morning but was extended as government troops backed by multinational forces continued their offensive against fighters loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, the state-owned al-Iraqyia television reported.
The US military said that it had killed 43 members of the al-Mahdi Army militia in fighting in Baghdad at the weekend.
In addition, an Iraqi special forces unit killed 22 Sadrists in the southern port city of Basra on Saturday, the US Army said.
In another development, a member of al-Sadr Bloc, Fawzi Tarzi, called for an emergency meeting of all political groups to avert a "humanitarian catastrophe" in the Shiite-dominated district of Sadr City.
Tarzi told the Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency the situation in Iraqi cities was deteriorating as the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki continued to reject any mediation to end the fighting peacefully.
Another member of al-Sadr Bloc accused the US and Iraqi troops of preventing medical supplies from being delivered to Sadr City and Shula district in eastern Baghdad, VOI reported.
Salih al-Ikily urged the UN special envoy in Iraq to interfere to save the lives of civilians in Shiite-dominated areas in Baghdad.
