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Attacks Kill 17 U.S. Soldiers in Iraq
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In a series of other attacks, three soldiers were killed in Diyala province and six in the Baghdad area. according to the icasualties website. In one incident, U.S. military officials said, a soldier on foot patrol southwest of Baghdad spotted two men near a mosque who appeared suspicious. As the soldier approached to question them, one of the men detonated explosives, killing himself and the soldier.
Sporadic violence broke out elsewhere Sunday. Shiite militiamen from the Mahdi Army, loyal to cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, fought Iraqi soldiers and police in Diwaniyah, about 110 miles south of Baghdad. The clashes occurred as security forces conducted raids in the city, according to Iraqi police, while U.S. aircraft provided cover overhead. The fighting killed at least one Iraqi soldier and wounded 16 other people, said Brig. Gen. Sadiq Jaffar, commander of the Diwaniyah police.
"During the raids, some outlaws were carrying unlicensed weapons and they shot people in a random way in order to spread fear and terrorize the people," he said.
A spokesman for Sadr's organization in Diwaniyah said the violence began after Iraqi police violated a signed truce by attempting to arrest a senior Mahdi Army leader in the area without a warrant. The militia leader, Kifah al-Kuraiti, was wounded in the clashes, said Haider Nateq. Iraqi police said they had warrants for all their targets.
In Baghdad early Sunday morning, Iraqi special operations troops exchanged gunfire with insurgents while the troops were raiding a government building in search of a senior militia leader believed responsible for coordinating kidnappings and roadside bomb attacks, the U.S. military said in a statement. The military did not identify the government building or the suspected militia leader.
The U.S. military also reported that Marines, working with Iraqi soldiers and police in the western city of Fallujah, killed seven suspected members of the insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq, detained eight others and destroyed a truck bomb factory Saturday.
Iraqi police patrols in the capital found at least 21 bodies, the victims of apparent sectarian killings.
Staff writer John Ward Anderson in Baghdad, special correspondents Naseer Nouri and Waleed Saffar in Baghdad and Saad Sarhan in Najaf and staff writer Debbi Wilgoren in Washington contributed to this report.
