By Amit R. Paley
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, November 23, 2007

BAGHDAD, Nov. 22 -- Al-Qaeda in Iraq gunmen disguised as official security forces killed at least 10 U.S.-backed Sunni fighters on Thursday, the latest attack on the American effort to form neighborhood-based armed patrols, Iraqi officials said.

The fighting began in the early morning in Hawr Rajab when about 15 members of the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq attacked an Iraqi army checkpoint, the U.S. military said. The military said the insurgents used small-arms fire throughout the morning against the Iraqi soldiers and the U.S.-backed Sunni fighters, known in military jargon as "concerned local citizens."

The insurgents had dressed up in police uniforms and commandeered vehicles before the attack, which killed at least 10 of the U.S.-backed fighters and wounded five Iraqi soldiers, according to an Interior Ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to reporters.

The U.S. military said it called in helicopter gunships to attack a van transporting insurgents involved in the clashes, killing two members of al-Qaeda in Iraq and wounding two others. An Air Force F-16 fighter jet later destroyed the van by dropping a 500-pound bomb on it, the military said.

Meanwhile, the bloodshed continued unabated elsewhere in Iraq. More than 24 people were killed or found dead in attacks across the country, the Interior Ministry official said. A series of rockets or mortar shells slammed into the Green Zone, though the number of casualties was unclear.

Other Washington Post staff in Iraq contributed to this report.