In pictures: Unrest in Iraq

There has been heavy fighting in the southern port city of Basra, as Iraqi troops battle militias including the Mehdi Army, led by Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr.

Elsewhere in the country - including here in Najaf - there have been protests by Sadr supporters, who say his militias are being unfairly targeted by authorities.

One demand is that all detainees be released. This woman - at a protest in Dora, Baghdad - is displaying a picture of her detained son and her grandchildren, killed in a mortar attack.

The Mehdi Army had been observing a ceasefire, which analysts say contributed to the recent decline of violence in Iraq. They now say the ceasefire is in danger of collapse.

As part of the revolt, Moqtada Sadr ordered shops to close in strongholds in western Baghdad.

Mosques urged people to join the protests.

But the demonstrators' ire is not reserved for the Iraqi authorities alone. Anger at US forces in Iraq was expressed in Najaf...

... and in Amil, Baghdad, where they held signs reading "No to America, yes to Iraq".

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