BAGHDAD, Iraq – U.S. soldiers killed six Iraqi police officers and seven gunmen Friday during a street battle that began when the troops captured a police lieutenant accused of directing a Shiite militia group, the military said.
The pre-dawn raid in eastern Baghdad came a day after another clash in the same area that left at least 11 Iraqis dead. In both cases, U.S. forces were targeting Shiite militias in an attempt to curb their influence.
Militiamen have infiltrated police units, and many members of the country’s Sunni minority do not trust the police.
The military described the lieutenant as having ties to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, which U.S. officials say supports Shiite militias in Iraq. Iranian officials have denied such assertions.
As troops seized the lieutenant, they came under fire from gunmen at an Iraqi police checkpoint, a nearby church and several rooftops, the military said. The soldiers returned fire, aided by an American aircraft overhead.
The Iraqi government has not taken the purging of police seriously enough, top Sunni politician Adnan al-Dulaimi told the Associated Press.
“We hope that they will be sincere in cleansing the police force and the army of those who work for Iran’s interests. They are a danger to everyone, the political process and the Americans,” he said.
Over the past year, the government has removed several thousand police officers accused of militia links and has tightened the vetting process for recruits.
Separately, the chief spokesman for the Interior Ministry, which oversees the police, said three police officers were killed and nine others injured when an American commander mistakenly fired on a police checkpoint early Friday morning at al-Tayaran Square in central Baghdad.
A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy said he had no information on that incident.
Also Friday, an Iraqi reporter for the New York Times was killed as he drove to work from his home in the Sadiyah neighborhood of Baghdad. Khalid Hassan, 23, was the 110th reporter killed in Iraq since the conflict began in 2003, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Iraqi police also reported that 26 bodies were found Friday in neighborhoods across Baghdad. The victims had all been shot in the head and tortured. An additional eight bodies, including three women, were found near Suwayrah, about 20 miles southeast of Baghdad.
A number of other Iraqis were killed in Baghdad on Friday, police said, including three civilians killed by mortar rounds that fell on their homes. Two civilians were killed when a roadside bomb detonated in the Shiite district of Sadr City.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
