BAGHDAD, Iraq – U.S. and Iraqi forces launched six raids against insurgents Friday, including one that killed at least three Iraqis in house-to-house fighting and another in which American forces wounded a female Iraqi who the U.S. command said was being used as a “human shield.”
In some of the fiercest fighting, Iraqi soldiers backed by U.S. helicopters swept through Fadhil, one of Baghdad’s oldest areas, in house-to-house combat, said police Lt. Ali Muhsin. The neighborhood is about a mile from the heavily fortified Green Zone, where Iraq’s Parliament and American forces are based.
Fighting in the narrow streets and alleys, suspected insurgents armed with rifles and machine guns killed one Iraqi soldier and two civilians, said Muhsin. U.S. helicopter gunships hovered overhead, but did not open fire on the crowded neighborhoods of one-story homes, he said.
State-run Iraqiya TV said 43 suspected insurgents were taken into custody. Lt. Col. Scott Bleichwehl, a U.S. military spokesman, said 28 people were detained in an operation aimed at capturing insurgents.
During five other raids, U.S. forces killed two insurgents and detained 27 Iraqis. The sweeps took place in Baghdad, the town of Youssifiyah to the south, and two locations to the north: near Taji, the U.S. Air Force base, and the town of Tarmiyah.
In the Taji area, soldiers killed one insurgent and wounded “a female local national who was being used as human shield by the terrorist,” the U.S. command said. The female, whose name and age were not given, was hospitalized, the U.S. military said.
It was the fourth time this week that a female Iraqi civilian has been killed or wounded in crossfire between U.S. forces and insurgents.
“Terrorists continue to deliberately place innocent Iraqi women and children in danger by their actions and presence,” the U.S. statement said.
Friday’s show of force came a day after President Bush rejected calls for a measured withdrawal of American troops from Iraq. At the meeting with Bush, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki – who faces domestic opposition to U.S. forces – said Iraqis could take full control by June.
A widening revolt within al-Maliki’s divided government showed no signs of subsiding, with 30 lawmakers and five Cabinet ministers loyal to anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr continuing their political boycott to protest the prime minister’s meeting with Bush.
The Sadrists, who want Iraqi forces to take control of the country’s security and coalition forces to pull out, said Thursday’s meeting was an affront to Iraqis.
Falah Hassan Shanshal, a Shiite lawmaker with the Sadrist group, criticized al-Maliki for winning a unanimous vote by the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday to extend for one year the mandate of the 160,000-strong multinational force in Iraq. At the time, the prime minister said a priority of his government is to assume full responsibility for security and stability throughout Iraq, but that it needs more time.
The U.S. military, meanwhile, said an American soldier was killed during combat in the capital Thursday, raising the number of U.S. troops who died in November to at least 67, well under the 105 reported dead in October.
Sectarian attacks also continued Friday in Baghdad, with at least 12 Iraqis killed and a Sunni Arab mosque damaged in Baghdad, despite a weekly four-hour vehicle ban aimed at preventing suicide car bombers during Friday prayers.
Gunmen also kidnapped the Sunni head of one of Iraq’s leading soccer clubs on Thursday and, in separate abductions Friday, two Iraqi women, ages 17 and 20.
U.S. military deaths
Latest identifications reported by the military of U.S. personnel killed in Iraq:
Army Cpl. Jonerik Loney, 21, Hartselle, Ala.; died Tuesday in Hit of injuries suffered when an explosive detonated near his vehicle; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, Baumholder, Germany.
Army Pfc. Theodore West, 23, Richmond, Ky.; died Wednesday in Baghdad of injuries suffered when an explosive detonated near his vehicle; assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.
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