Seven US soldiers have been killed in fierce clashes with Shiites in Baghdad's impoverished slum area of Sadr City, according to a US military spokesman.
20 die in clashes near Najaf
The spiritual head of Iraq's Shiite majority, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, has called for calm in the wake of the deaths of at least 20 people when Spanish-led troops clashed with protesters near the Iraqi city of Najaf.
Another 150 were wounded in the incident, which started when protesters marched on a Spanish garrison near Kufa.
One American and one Salvadoran soldier were among the dead as a radical Shi'ite group intensified unrest.
The protesters were marching in support of Shiite Muslim radical leader Moqtada Sadr.
Sadr's supporters have staged several marches in the past week to protest against the closure a week ago of al-Hawza newspaper, a mouthpiece for Sadr that US-led authorities accused of inciting anti-American violence.
