Iraqi security forces killed 39 "terrorists" in a fierce battle in the western Sunni province of Al-Anbar on Tuesday, said a top Iraqi official. Brigadier general Abdel Karim Khalaf, director of the operations centre in the interior ministry, said seven others were arrested, including some Arab nationals.
According to AFP, the clashes broke out early on Tuesday in Ameriyah, southwest of Fallujah.
In other Iraq violence Tuesday, a parked car bomb went off near a main bus station in central Baghdad, killing five civilians and injuring 18, police said.
A suicide car bomber drove his vehicle into an Iraq army checkpoint in a predominantly Sunni neighborhood in western Baghdad, killing one soldier and wounding another, police said. A roadside bomb struck the area about five minutes later but caused no casualties.
At noon, a car bomb went off in a tunnel in downtown Baghdad, killing three civilians and injuring seven others, police said.
Seven civilians also were wounded in two separate attacks in southeastern Baghdad.
Late Monday, U.S. and Iraqi troops also engaged in a major operation as part of a security crackdown in the Hurriyah neighborhood in northern Baghdad, state television said. Witnesses said many people were reported holed up in two Shiite mosques, surrounded by U.S. forces.
The state-run Iraqiya network said six civilians had been killed.
Meanwhile, the UN refugee agency said on Tuesday some 730,000 Iraqis have fled their homes since the outset of 2006 and are facing increasing hardship inside Iraq. Ron Redmond, a spokesman for the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said that most of the displaced were now hemmed inside the conflict-riven country.
"Reaching help and safety in neighbouring countries is becoming increasingly difficult," Redmond said, according to AFP. "Many of those who have fled to other parts of Iraq have run out of resources and host communities are also struggling to absorb increasing numbers of displaced," he added.
The UNHCR estimates that up to 50,000 people are fleeing their homes every month.
An estimated 4.0 million people in Iraq are dependent on food assistance, while the rate of chronic malnutrition among children is 23 percent, Redmond said.
