British and American troops launched a deadly raid into southern Iraq yesterday to stop explosives and arms being smuggled from Iran to Shia Muslim militants across the border.

The special forces operation in the early hours hit targets of al-Mahdi Army in the town of al-Amarah and Majjar al-

Kabir, the scene of previous heavy clashes with British troops. The Iraqi fighters hit back and coalition forces called in airstrikes as fighting raged for two hours.

The US military, which described the action as a “joint US-British operation”, said that 20 people were killed, all of them militants. But a local hospital reported 36 Iraqis dead and 100 injured. Local television footage showed the damage to buildings from what had been a heavy gun battle. Local leaders claimed that among those killed and wounded were civilians caught in the cross fire.

“Most of the dead were killed in bombings as they were sleeping on roofs of their homes,” said Latif al-Tamimi, a local provincial councillor. “Those killed were residents and not linked to any political party.” He said that the council held an emergency meeting where it was decided to demand an apology from the British military and suspend work for three days in protest at the action.

A spokesman for Hojatoleslam Moqtadr al-Sadr, the militant Shia Muslim leader and head of al-Mahdi Army, blamed the British for the attack, saying that they had used “helicopters and aircraft”. The group is suspected of being behind the kidnapping last month of a British aid worker and four British bodyguards, who were abducted from a Finance Ministry building in Baghdad.

The British military distanced itself from the incident, insisting that it had only played a supporting role in the action. The battle took place in the restive Maysan province, which British forces handed over to Iraqi troops last year. The area remains under overall British military supervision and several hundred British troops still patrol Maysan.

Locals said that they saw British helicopters distributing leaflets over the area declaring that “the Iraqi Government will not be soft on terrorism” and “Maysan will not be a safe area for the Iranian Quds Force and its agents who want to weaken the Iraqi Government”.

The leaflets referred to fears that the area is falling under the influence of Iran or its surrogates, who are accused of smuggling arms and explosives into Iraq from supporters across the border.

The US military said that the main target of the attacks were members of a “secret cell” suspected of importing “explosively formed penetrators” (EFPs) into Iraq. The sophisticated device is used for making roadside bombs and can penetrate the thickest American and British armoured vehicles. It is blamed for causing most of the recent casualties among coalition forces.

“Terrorists learnt this morning that there is no safe haven in Iraq,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Garver, the US military spokesman in Iraq. “Coalition Forces will seek out and find terrorists anywhere and everywhere in Iraq.”

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