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BAGHDAD, Oct. 20 -- Members of the Madhi Army, a powerful Shiite militia headed by firebrand cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, took over the southern Iraq city of Amarah and battled with the local Shiite police for a day before withdrawing on Friday, in a bloody feud that illustrated deepening rifts among the sect's and growing turmoil in the south.

As many as 25 people, including 10 policemen, were killed in street fighting and mortar attacks that raged in Amarah, a predominantly Shiite city about 190 miles southeast of Baghdad, from mid-day Thursday until about 2 p.m. local time Friday. The militia attacked the headquarters and two stations of the city police department, which is reportedly aligned with the Badr Brigades, an arm of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), a powerful Shiite religious party.

The fighting reportedly erupted when a top SCIRI police official was killed, then the brother of a Madhi Army leader was arrested, and both sides blamed the other in a cycle of retaliatory clashes with tribal overtones.

The takeover ended, according to Maj. Charlie Burbribge, a British military spokesman, "when Moqtada al-Sadr told them to stop. The situation now is calm but tense."

Burbribge said that police were back in their stations and in control of the streets, that 220 Iraqi Army units were in the town supporting them, and that 700 more Iraqi soldiers and 500 British troops were on standby to assist if requested.