At least 72 people were killed and nearly 150 wounded overnight in fighting between Iraqi police backed by US airstrike and Shiite militia in the southern Iraqi city of Kut, Health Ministry said on Thursday.

According to the ministry, most victims were killed when US forces launched air raid to the southern city, some 170 km south of Baghdad.

Kut was one of the cities which have witnessed over the past week a bloody Shiite uprising against US forces and Iraqi national guardsmen and police.

Clashes pitting US forces and radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army in Iraq's holy city of Najaf also wore into the second week, with a major US military offensive looming.

Rebellion has flared up across the country's Shiite districts recently, presenting the sternest task for Iraq's interim government, which was also bogged down by an unabated hostage crisis.

Source: Xinhua