At least 19 people, including 17 Shiite fighters, were killed in clashes with armed Sunnis east of Baghdad, an interior ministry official said, according to AFP. The Shiites from the Mehdi Army, loyal to cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, had asked police for help in recovering a comrade who was being held in Al-Khazaliyah. But the group was attacked by gunmen as they prepared to launch the operation on Thursday.
The other two dead were both policemen and another 12 Shiites were also injured, the official said.
US death toll mounting
The U.S. military, which on Tuesday marked its 2,000th death since the 2003 invasion, declared on Thursday that gunmen using roadside bombs and small arms fire killed three American troops and injured four.
Two American troops were killed Wednesday when their convoy hit a roadside bomb in eastern Baghdad, the military stated. That same day, a roadside bomb and small arms fire struck a patrol near Ashraf village, north of Baghdad, killing one American soldier and injuring four, the military said.
In Baghdad on Thursday, a suicide bomber attacked a U.S. military convoy at 7:30 a.m., killing one Iraqi civilian and wounding nine others. In Dora, a drive-by shooting by gunmen killed police Lt. Colonel Mahdi Hussein in his car, authorities said.
Two other Iraqis were killed outside Baghdad.
Meanwhile, American warplanes destroyed more safe houses near the Syrian border and apparently killed a senior al-Qaeda operative, the military said, according to the AP.
The US military said intelligence sources indicated the figure, identified as Abu Dua, was inside the house but his body has not been recovered. It added that Abu Dua had also set up religious courts to try Iraqis charged with supporting the Iraqi government and occupation forces.
