Ultimatum in Iraq 'outlaw' showdown

Fighting across Iraq's Shiite heartland erupted for a second day on Wednesday, with troops continuing a major operation against "outlaws" in the key oil city of Basra, conducting forays against militants in flashpoint Baghdad neighborhoods, and clamping down on violence in key provincial capitals.
Iraq's prime minister Wednesday gave Shiite militants battling security forces in Basra a 72-hour deadline to surrender their weapons as the fighting threatened to unravel a delicate cease-fire.
Officials say between 40 and 50 people have died in the southern city of Basra and at least 22 have been killed in Baghdad in fighting that has its roots in intra-Shiite rivalries and Shiite turf wars in southern Iraq and Baghdad.
A few hundred people have been wounded in the fighting, and the International Committee of the Red Cross has announced that it is providing supplies to hospitals in Basra and Baghdad's Sadr City to help treat them.
Fighting also broke out in Diwaniya and Kut, predominantly Shiite provincial capitals south of Baghdad, but there have been no reported casualties in those locations.
Iraqi authorities -- who called Wednesday's violence "sporadic" -- said the fighting is occurring in bastions of support for Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadrand his Mehdi Army militia. And, they say, Iraqi and U.S. forces have squared off with fighters who support the hard-line, anti-American cleric.
The U.S. military emphasizes that troops are taking on "outlaws" or "rogue" militia members and are not targeting members affiliated with al-Sadr.
"This is about criminal activity," said Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad. "It's about those that are not respecting the rule of law."