Top U.S. general vows to "destroy" Shiite militia - 60 dead overnight

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040407/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq&cid=540&ncid=716

FALLUJAH, Iraq - U.S. troops battled with insurgents in two central Iraqi towns Wednesday, with at least 60 Iraqis killed and more than 120 wounded in overnight fighting in Fallujah, hospital officials said.

Meanwhile, a top U.S. general in Iraq (news - web sites) vowed to "destroy" a Shiite militia that, along with Sunni Muslim guerrillas, waged the most extensive fighting since President Bush (news - web sites) declared the war over in May. Up to a dozen Marines, two other coalition soldiers and scores of Iraqis were killed in battles Tuesday.

"The coalition and Iraqi security forces will continue deliberate, precise and powerful offensive operations to destroy the al-Mahdi Army throughout Iraq," Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the U.S. military's deputy head of operations, told reporters in Baghdad.

He said U.S. forces were trying to hunt down members of the al-Mahdi Army in the mainly Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City in Baghdad, while U.S. and coalition forces were working to prevent militiamen from seizing government buildings and police stations in southern cities.