Anarchy across Iraq

British soldiers killed 15 militants as Iraq descended into new levels of anarchy today.

The Iraqis died in a string of clashes with UK forces over the past 48 hours in Basra and Amarah as a Shia uprising led by firebrand cleric Moqtada al-Sadr swept through the country. More than 20 Iraqis were injured in Amarah and Basra - the main cities in the British-controlled sector of the country. Twenty-four Coalition soldiers, six of them British, were hurt, none seriously, the Ministry of Defence said.

The confrontations came as efforts to keep peace went into meltdown and America said it is planning a massive troop reinforcement. In the most widespread violence to hit Iraq since the last days of the war, Coalition troops faced clashes in almost all the main cities.

The Iraqi death toll in two days of violence is thought to be at least 70 and could be much higher. It leaves the American-led administration facing the prospect of cancelling the planned handover of power to Iraqis at the end of June, which would be a bitter personal blow to President Bush and his administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer.

The Amarah protests descended into bloody battles between demonstrators and police, and are thought to have involved the Shia leader's most loyal supporters, the so-called Madi Army.

Al-Sadr has called on his followers to bring "terror" to the Coalition occupation in a radical break with the wider majority Shia community, which was repressed under Saddam and has been broadly supportive of the Americanled invasion.

Violence in British-held territory had until now been confined to protests by the unemployed and poor spilling over into violence. But the new organised militancy means UK commanders now face the same level of violence which has dogged American commanders around Baghdad.

Fresh British troops are due to arrive in Basra later this month as part of a planned rotation which will maintain the 11,000-strong UK force at its current levels.