In an apparent bid to apply pressure on Mahdi Army fighters, US forces have completely cut off electricity to the Baghdad district of Kadhimiya, al-Melaf reports in Arabic on Wednesday.

The measures are an attempt to pressure the residents of the district to expel members of the Mahdi Army in Kadhimiya and to turn them over to US forces, al-Melaf writes.

Kadhimiya is one of the few majority Shi'a areas in Baghdad west of the Tigris River, and is the home of an important Shi'a shrine, the Imam Musa al-Kadhim mosque, named for the seventh Shi'a imam.

American military has taken a series of measures in recent months to strike against the Mahdi Army in Kadhimiya. The district has been relatively calm compared to other areas of the capital, although it has suffered attacks and bombing attempts.

The Mahdi Army militia is attached to the Sadrist movement, loyal to young Shi’a cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. However, it is not known how much centralized control Sadr asserts over the whole of the Mahdi Army.

US forces clashed with the Mahdi Army in the district in April, leading to a government agreement that Multinational Forces would not be allowed closer than 1,000 meters from the revered Shi'a shrine at the center of the district.

The Mahdi Army has assumed much of the security responsibility for the Kadhimiya district, but rumors of coordination between the US and Mahdi Army in policing the area have been denied by the Sadrist organization.