Iraqi civilian deaths also remained high following the Iraqi government crackdown on Shiite militia factions – accused by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of using residents as human shields during close combat in the teeming Sadr City slum.

The clashes in Sadr City – a base for the powerful Mahdi Army militia – show little sign of easing as Iraqi and U.S. troops try to exert control over an area containing nearly half of Baghdad’s population.

In the deadliest skirmish Wednesday, suspected Shiite extremists first attacked with mortars and machine guns, then drove up a U.S. checkpoint and opened fire. The U.S. military said seven militants were killed. At least 10 other militiamen died in other clashes, the military said.

But the growing violence in Baghdad also has taken a toll on U.S. forces.

At least five soldiers have been killed in the city since Tuesday, bringing the monthly count to at least 50 – 27 in Baghdad – in the deadliest month since September when 65 U.S. troops died.

Since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, at least 4,062 U.S. military personnel have died in Iraq, according to an Associated Press count.

The U.S. military reported early today that a soldier had been killed by an explosion Wednesday near a patrol in Ninevah Province.

Around Iraq, at least 1,080 Iraqi civilians and security forces were killed nationwide this month, or an average of 36 a day, according to an AP tally. That’s down from March’s total of 1,269, or an average of 41 per day.

But nearly 40 percent of the April deaths – 413 – occurred in Baghdad as violence returned to the capital, according to the AP figures compiled from reports from Iraqi police, hospital officials and government offices.

Civilian deaths have steadily risen this year, and spiked sharply after al-Maliki launched the offensive on Shiite militias on March 25 in the southern city of Basra. Fighting soon flared in Sadr City, which has become the epicenter of the battles.

It’s difficult to determine the civilian toll from the ongoing clashes in Sadr City.

Five years after ‘Mission Accomplished’

WASHINGTON – The White House said Wednesday that President Bush has paid a price for the “Mission Accomplished” banner that was flown in triumph five years ago but later became a symbol of U.S. misjudgments and mistakes in the long and costly war in Iraq.

Today is the fifth anniversary of Bush’s dramatic landing in a Navy jet on an aircraft carrier homebound from the war. The USS Abraham Lincoln had launched thousands of airstrikes on Iraq.

“Major combat operations in Iraq have ended,” Bush said at the time. “The battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that began on September 11th, 2001, and still goes on.” The “Mission Accomplished” banner was prominently displayed above him – a move the White House came to regret as the display was mocked and became a source of controversy.

After shifting explanations, the White House eventually said the “Mission Accomplished” phrase referred to the carrier’s crew completing its 10-month mission, not the military completing its mission in Iraq. Bush, in October 2003, said the White House had nothing to do with the banner; a spokesman later said the ship’s crew asked for the sign.

White House press secretary Dana Perino said Wednesday that what is important now is “how the president would describe the fight today. It’s been a very tough month in Iraq, but we are taking the fight to the enemy.”

The Associated Press