After seven weeks of fierce fighting with radical Shia militias by US and Iraqi government troops, residents in the sprawling Baghdad slum of Sadr City face shortages of government services, food and water, aid officials say.

There were reports that the Iraq government warned citizens to leave one of the embattled zones in the sprawling district, which the US says is used by militiamen associated with the Mahdi Army, loyal to the radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, to launch rocket attacks.