The US military has launched helicopter strikes in Baghdad in an attempt to quell violent uprisings by Shia militiamen.

Two Apache helicopters fired on a number of targets in the city as fighting continued between followers of the radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr and US forces.

Violence erupted over the weekend as elements of the Shia community signalled their opposition to the presence of foreign troops in Iraq.

The unrest began in protest over the arrest of one of Mr Sadr’s senior aides.

These developments have come as a major blow to the provisional authority, which has until now enjoyed relatively positive relations with the Shia community.

Earlier today Shia fighters occupied the governor’s building in Basra, Iraq’s second city, which is patrolled predominantly by British troops.

Over the weekend, a total of ten US soldiers were killed during shootouts in Baghdad and Fallujah in some of the worst violence since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime.