US forces in deadly gun battle with Shi'ite militias

It is not immediately clear whether the operation was linked to the abduction last week of a Sunni lawmaker. U.S.-led forces have launched a major operation to find her, while some Sunni leaders have blamed Shi’ite militias for her kidnapping.

An Iraqi Interior Ministry source said nine people were killed and 31 wounded. Four houses were also destroyed. A police source put the death toll at seven and said the casualties were all militiamen.

The U.S. military said in a statement the raid had been by Iraqi soldiers, aimed at capturing an insurgent leader responsible for numerous deaths.

In Baghdad’s sprawling Shi’ite slum district of Sadr City, the US military and security sources said the fighting resulted in the capture of a “high-level insurgent leader” behind attacks on Iraqi and US-led forces, but did not name him.

“An estimated 30 to 40 enemy fighters were killed or wounded in the 43-minute fire fight,” it said.

Sources in the defence and interior ministries said the clashes between US-led forces and firebrand Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mehdi army lasted for four hours and left at least nine people dead and 30 wounded.

The US military said Iraqi forces returned defensive fire when they were attacked with small arms and rocket propelled grenades from the roof of a building where the insurgent leader was detained.

The captured insurgent “and his followers have kidnapped, tortured and murdered Iraqi citizens”, the military said, adding that he was “also involved in the transfer of weapons from Syria into Iraq”.

Sahib al-Amiri, an official in Sadr’s movement, said the US forces had detained a Shi’ite imam from the district, Adnan al-Oneibi.

“We strongly condemn the attacks of US and Iraqi forces, and we call on the Iraqi government to protect its citizens against these kinds of attacks,” Amiri said.

The militias are…

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