US forces said today they killed six militants in air strikes overnight in Baghdad's Sadr City, despite a call by cleric Moqtada al-Sadr for his fighters to observe a truce which seems to have reined them in.
In a sign of progress towards reconciling Iraq's main sects, Shia Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki met Sunni Arab Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi to discuss the eventual return of the main Sunni Arab bloc to Maliki's government.
Ten people were killed and more than 40 wounded overnight in Sadr City, where Sadr's fighters have battled US and Iraqi troops for a month, Iraqi police and hospital sources said.
US forces, who have launched several air strikes a day from Apache helicopters and remote-controlled drones, said they spotted three groups of militants at night and hit them from the air with Hellfire missiles, killing five gunmen.
A sixth fighter was killed by a helicopter strike in the morning and a seventh died in a shootout.
Meanwhile, a barrage of about 10 rockets struck near Baghdad's fortified Green Zone diplomatic and government compound today, Reuters correspondents nearby said.
The rockets could be heard whistling past as they flew in the direction of the riverside compound, where they exploded.
The Iraqi government's confrontation with Sadr's fighters began a month ago with a crackdown launched by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in the southern city of Basra.
Despite the clashes in Shia areas over the past month, US commanders say violence along Iraq's main sectarian divide between Sunni Arabs and Shias has remained much lower after falling dramatically last year.