There were also reports that within the capital, in the New Baghdad neighborhood, a local Shiite mosque loudspeaker issued calls to Mahdi Army guerrillas and blamed U.S. troops for the attack. The Mahdi guerrillas then cleared a marketplace and called for reinforcements to fight nearby American soldiers. Witnesses told of explosions and smoke coming from the highway. In the upscale Mansour neighborhood, consisting predominately of Sunnis, gunfire was heard coming from an Iraqi army checkpoint set up to safeguard an often targeted Sunni mosque.