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14 Gunmen Killed in Baghdad Battle
The Bulgarian Post 2007-04-11 09:07:39 At least 14 suspected gunmen were killed and four U.S. attack helicopters hit in a fierce day-long battle between U.S. and Iraqi troops and gunmen in central Baghdad on Tuesday, the U.S. military said on Wednesday. Residents of Fadhil district, a violent Sunni insurgent stronghold on the east bank of the Tigris River and the scene of Tuesday's fighting, held funeral processions to bury the bodies of 15 men at the nearby Adhamiya cemetery, Reuters news agency reported. The U.S. military said the battle erupted after gunmen fired on U.S. and Iraqi troops during a routine search operation. Four U.S. Apache helicopters were hit by ground fire and had to return to base. Four Iraqi soldiers were killed and 16 U.S. soldiers wounded in the fighting, including an Apache pilot, U.S. military spokesman Major General William Caldwell said, giving new details of the operation at a news briefing in Baghdad. It was the worst outbreak of violence since U.S. and Iraqi forces launched a major security crackdown in the capital two months ago aimed at curbing rampant sectarian violence that threatens to plunge Iraq into full-scale civil war. Fadhil was reported to be quiet on Wednesday, but residents taking part in two funeral processions down the main street of the district were angry. They denounced the Shi'ite-led government and said those slain were innocent. While Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki continued his Asian trip to boost relations with Japan and South Korea, he was also having to deal with tensions with neighbors Turkey and Iran. Iran, which refused to allow his plane to fly through its airspace on his way to Japan, said on Wednesday it may not attend a conference on Iraq next month if U.S. forces do not release five Iranians they are holding, a newspaper reported. Iran last week warned Iraq that its failure to secure the release of the five, who Washington says were linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guards, would impair relations. Iran says the five are diplomats and denies the charges. Maliki was also forced to mollify neighbor Turkey after the leader of Iraq's largely autonomous northern Kurdish region angered Ankara by saying if Turkey interfered in Kurdistan, Iraqi Kurds would interfere in Kurdish cities in Turkey. |
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