CNN REPORTS: IRAQ PM GIVES MILITANTS 72 HOURS TO SURRENDER: 50 CIVILIANS KILLED IN PAST 24 HOURS

It is now a test of wills.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told CNN he has given the Iraqi militants who have been responsible for 50 deaths in Basra just 72-hours to give up.

Elsewhere in Iraq, mortars were fired into the Green Zone and early reports are three American civilians working inside the Green Zone have been seriously wounded.

Iraq PM: Militants have 72 hours to surrender

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/03/26/iraq.main/index.html

Story Highlights
Death toll in two days of fighting nears 50
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki gives militants 72 hours to surrender
Followers of radical Shiite cleric urge disobedience over raids

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraq's prime minister Wednesday gave Shiite militants battling security forces in Basra a 72-hour deadline to surrender as the death toll from two days of fighting that threatens to undo efforts to stabilize Iraq neared 50.

Nuri al-Maliki gave the ultimatum a day after clashes erupted in the southern oil port city and Baghdad between Iraqi and U.S. security forces and fighters aligned with the Mehdi Army -- the militia of hard-line Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

The fighting has killed 40 to 50 people in Basra, 18 others in Baghdad and left scores injured. Officials say the dead in Basra include Iraqi troops, police, civilians and militiamen.

In a further incident Wednesday, three U.S. government officials were seriously injured as militants targeted the International Zone in Baghdad, a U.S. Embassy spokeswoman said.

The renewed violence in Basra and Baghdad threatens to unravel a seven-months-long suspension of Mehdi Army activities, a much-praised cease-fire called by al-Sadr that the U.S. military says has decreased violence across Iraq.

Growing tension between the Sadrist movement and Iraqi authorities has boiled over in recent weeks, with Sadrists saying they have been unfairly targeted and detained in U.S. and Iraqi raids.

The U.S. military says it has been targeting Shiite militants who have flouted the al-Sadr cease-fire. A breakdown of the cease-fire and a renewal of street violence could affect U.S. military plans to withdraw and redeploy troops.

A Basra city council official said that the latest fighting erupted when security forces entered Mehdi Army strongholds, where militiamen were armed with machine guns, grenades, rockets and mortars.

The fighting erupted as al-Sadr's political organization launched a nationwide civil disobedience movement to protest recent arrests of its members.