Iraqi police launched a surprise attack on a group of resistance fighters south of Baghdad, killing 25 of them, authorities said Monday.
According to The AP, some 60 police officers from the city of Hillah, dressed in civilian clothing, ambushed the resistance elements in the Latifiyah area early Sunday, said an officer with the Babil provincial police force.
During a fierce gunbattle that lasted for several hours, 25 fighters were killed, he said. Iraqi forces reported no casualties.
Elsewhere, a car bomb on Monday hit a civilian convoy belonging to U.S.-led occupation forces on the main highway to Baghdad's airport, the Iraqi Interior Ministry stated. Two sport utility vehicles were damaged as the they moved through the western Amiriyah district, spokesman Col. Adnan Abdul-Rahman said, according to The AP.
Earlier, a police officer at the scene said he believed the vehicles were hit by rocket-propelled grenades rather than a car bomb.
Witnesses reported seeing two dead Westerners lying on the ground while three victims were evacuated.
Also Monday, at least four Iraqis were killed and more than 10 injured, including a US soldier, in car bomb attacks in the city of Ramadi and the northern town of Mosul.
At least four Iraqis were killed and one wounded in a car bomb attack in central Ramadi, west of Fallujah, as a US convoy was passing through, police said Monday.
In Mosul, another car bomb hit a US convoy travelling in the central Al-Faislaiyah neighbourhood, wounding one soldier, said a US military spokesman. Hospital officials said they treated 12 wounded civilians from the attack.
Meanwhile, masked men activated a bomb near an Orthodox church in southern Baghdad on Monday, and police at the scene said three people were killed and 34 wounded.
In another incident, a British soldier was killed and two others injured when a bomb went off near the camp where they are based south of Baghdad, the British defence ministry said.
(albawaba.com)
