Thirty four people, including 25 Iraqi soldiers, have been killed in fierce clashes with Shia militiamen in the town of Diwaniya, south of Baghdad, an Iraqi army source said today.

Five Iraqi soldiers have also gone missing during the fighting, which started on Sunday evening, the army source said. The clashes have been with militiamen of al-Mehdi army, which is loyal to Hojetoleslam Moqtada al-Sadr, a radical Shia cleric.

Ahmed al-Haji, who is in charge of security at Diwanaya’s main hospital, said that the bodies of 25 soldiers and nine civilians, including a 12-year-old girl, had been brought in.

US aircraft circled over the town as clashes continued.

The fighting in Diwaniya, a provincial capital 180 km (115 miles) south of Baghdad, was one of the bloodiest battles yet between US-trained government troops and Shia militiamen.

Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister and himself a Shia, has vowed to disband militias to avert civil war. But, 100 days after his unity coalition was sworn in, the irregular fighters remain powerful players in power struggles among rival Shia factions dominant across southern Iraq.

Hojetoleslam al-Sadr’s supporters hold a number of Cabinet posts, but senior government officials say that that could change in a forthcoming reshuffle because Mr al-Maliki is frustrated by divided loyalties.

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