Eight members of Moqtada Sadr's militia were killed and 14 others injured during fighting with US troops this afternoon in the shrine city of Karbala.
The two sides exchanged fire outside the cleric's office next to the Mohkayem Mosque, not far from the heart of the city.
Earlier, two foreign journalists were shot dead and a third wounded in an attack in central Iraq. All three were working for Poland's state television station, TVP.
They were travelling in a car near the town of Latifiya, 20 miles south of Baghdad, when gunmen drove up behind them and opened fire.
TVP has confirmed that a Polish reporter and an Algerian picture editor working for the channel were killed in the attack.
