(27 Apr 2008)

Baghdad's Maalif district
1. Damaged minibus, zoom in to holes in windscreen
2. Various of damage and blood in interior of minibus
3. Man inspecting damaged minivan
4. Another damaged civilian car
5. Blood spattered interior car and seats
6. Shards of glass on seats
7. Various of a third damaged vehicle with bullet holes in its side
8. Close up of hole in truck
9. Man crouching and crying
10. Various of minibus with coffin on top
11. Wide of minibus with coffin on top

Baghdad's Sadr city
12. Pan to tents, the venue for news conference
13. Various of schoolgirls carrying photos of suffering city residents
14. Wide of news conference by lawmakers
15. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Mostafa al-Hiti, member of Dialogue Front Party:
''We appeal to the government and other parties involved in the conflict to stop fighting immediately to save innocent people.''
16. Dialogue Front Party members
17. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Mostafa al-Hiti, member of Dialogue Front Party:
''We appeal to the government to lift the siege imposed on the city. And we also call upon the military troops to pull out of government offices and buildings. We are ready to work with the Sadr bloc to bring any wanted people to justice as we believe that the weapons are only in hands of government.''
18. Mid of party members
19. Wide of tents

STORYLINE:

Sporadic clashes continued on Sunday in the Mahdi Army stronghold of Sadr City, a sprawling district in
northeastern Baghdad with 2.5 (m) million people.

Police said that five people died and 14 were wounded in a clash between Shiite militiamen and Iraqi and American forces in the southern suburb of Maalif. But the U.S. military denied that its forces had been engaged there.

Associated Press Television News footage from the scene showed a minibus riddled with bullets and a pool of blood in another minibus that was reportedly carrying children.

Fighting in the district has been ongoing since al-Maliki first launched his campaign a month ago against militias in the southern city of Basra.

Also on Sunday, a delegation of about 40 lawmakers from various Sunni, Kurd, Turkomen and Shiite parliamentary
parties visited Sadr City and urged the government to end the military campaign there.

''We appeal to the government and other parties involved in the conflict to stop fighting immediately to save innocent people," one of the lawmakers, Mostafa al-Hiti, who is a member of the Dialogue Front party said.

''We appeal to the government to lift the siege imposed on city. And we also call upon the military troops to pull out of government offices and buildings. We are ready to work with the Sadr bloc to bring any wanted people to justice as we believe that the weapons are only in hand of government," he added.

As the delegation met Iraq's prime minister was meeting with the Sunni vice president to discuss reintegrating Sunni political parties into his Shiite-dominated government.

The meeting between Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Tariq al-Hashemi came a day after the Sunni leader described the return of his boycotting political bloc, the National Accordance Front, to the Cabinet as a priority

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