Hundreds of people loyal to radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr protested the long-term Iraqi-US security pact on Friday, while Iranian forces shelled two border villages it claimed harboured a militant Kurdish nationalist group based in northern Iraq...

The Sadrists demonstrated in Karbala, 110 kilometers south of the Iraqi capital, after Friday prayers, the director of al-Sadr's office in Karbala said.

'Many Sadrists, including 300 women, raised banners rejecting the long-term agreement,' Sheikh Hussein al-Karbalaei told Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency.

Al-Sadr has previously called on his followers to hold weekly protests against the proposed US-Iraqi deal, which would set the terms for a long-term US military presence in Iraq after the bulk of its forces withdraw.

Al-Sadr, who sharply critcizes the US presence in Iraq, demanded a public referendum in case on the status of forces agreement if the Iraqi government accepts the deal.

Elsewhere, two border villages in Sulaymanyah province, 365 kilometers north of Baghdad, came under heavy Iranian artillery shelling on Friday morning, a spokesman for the Iraqi Kurdistan region's guard forces said.

'No information is yet available on possible casualties resulting from the shelling,' the source was quoted as telling VOI.

Meanwhile, a local resident told VOI by phone that the two villages had earlier been evacuated due to the incessant Iranian fire. Only shepherds remained in the area, the source said.

Iran has been aiming to oust a Kurdish nationalist group in the region.

In other developments, media reports said joint US-Iraqi forces detained six people during a military offensive that targeted al- Qaeda members in Diyala province.

Another three suspects terrorists were killed in a separate military operation in Diyala's capital Baquba, some 60 kilometres north of Baghdad, VOI said.