BAGHDAD, May 6: A pullout of 3,500 US troops from Iraq was under way on Tuesday, the military said as Baghdad and Tehran kept up diplomatic moves to halt the escalating deadly street battles with militias.

The American forces in Baghdad announced that the soldiers who came as part of a controversial “surge” in February 2007 would complete a return to their base at Fort Benning in Georgia over the next several weeks.

One third of the 3,500 troops have already left while the others are on their way, US military spokesman Major Winfield Danielson says.

The pullout is in line with US President George Bush’s “surge” plan announced in September to complete the withdrawal of the 30,000 extra troops he deployed last year to curb an increase in sectarian violence in Iraq.

The latest announcement came as Iraq moved to mend fences with its former enemy Iran, even as Washington accused Tehran-linked groups of providing support for militiamen fighting American forces in Baghdad.

Militiamen loyal to anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr have been battling US troops in Sadr City, a volatile and impoverished district of some two million people.

Hundreds of people have been killed in the running street battles pitting US and Iraqi forces against the militiamen since late March.

On Tuesday, Iraqi officials said at least another four people were killed and 12 wounded in overnight clashes in Sadr City.

Another three people were killed and 10 wounded when mortar bombs slammed into a municipality building in central Baghdad on Tuesday, Iraqi security officials said.

In Diyala province, north of the capital, a pro-US tribal chief and three members of his family were kidnapped by suspected Al Qaeda gunmen, officials said.

The abductions came after at least 10 Iraqi soldiers were killed on Monday in a suspected Al Qaeda attack in the region, one of the most violent in Iraq.

In April, at least 1,073 Iraqis were killed in attacks across the country, most of them in the violence in Sadr City, according to figures provided by the interior, defence and health ministries.

US commanders charge that the militiamen they are fighting in Sadr City are using rockets and bombs supplied by Iranian groups.

The accusations have threatened to derail a planned fourth round of talks between representatives of Washington, Tehran and Baghdad on the situation in Iraq.

“It’s meaningless to have talks on anything with Iran as long as they don’t change their behaviour,” US State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey told reporters on Monday.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini also said new talks would be fruitless as “we are witnessing open bombings by the US occupying forces in Iraq.” The US military has been using air support and tanks to fight militants in Sadr City.

On Sunday, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said Baghdad was forming a panel to search for the evidence to “document any Iranian intervention in Iraqi affairs.” The US troops who are being pulled back had not been deployed in the Sadr City area, but in a region just south of the embattled capital of six million people.

“The continued drawdown of surge brigades demonstrates continued progress in Iraq,” Brigadier General Dan Allyn said in a statement announcing the latest troop withdrawals.

Washington has said it wants to complete the withdrawal of the 30,000 troops by July and have a 45-day evaluation period before considering the overall level of US troops.

US commanders said the number of American troops currently deployed in Iraq was 156,000, while another 10,000 troops from other coalition member states were also on the ground.—AFP