US kills 16 Shi'ite insurgents in Baghdad

BAGHDAD - US troops killed 16 militiamen loyal to rebel cleric Shi'ite cleric in a series of clashes in Baghdad's Sadr City suburb overnight, the US military said on Monday, a day after it said 19 were killed in the same area.

"Fourteen of the insurgents were members of rocket-propelled grenade launcher teams, one was part of a mortar team engaging a coalition base and the final one was killed when he fired on a coalition patrol," the US-led military said in a statement.

"No coalition force casualties or damage to vehicles or equipment were reported," the statement said.

Earlier, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt told reporters US troops and militiamen loyal to the rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr had fought running battles in the alleyways of the impoverished neighbourhood before and after US forces destroyed Sadr's office in the area. He said 35 militiamen had been killed.

Commanders of the Mehdi Army militia say US forces exaggerate militia casualties.

The office was destroyed by a combination of gunfire from tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles and "perhaps helicopters".

Local witnesses said earlier that the office appeared to have been flattened by a bomb dropped from one of the US warplanes in the air at the time.

Also on Monday insurgents opened fire on a US patrol in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, injuring one US soldier who later died of his wounds, Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Piek said.

He said the attackers had opened fire on the patrol in a district in southern Mosul on Monday evening.


- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq