United States forces, backed by airstrikes, raided Sadr City, Bagdad’s main shiite district, killing 49 militia leader accused in high-profile kidnappings, the military said. Iraqi officials said women and children were among the dead.
The Iraqi reports followed other recent claims of civilian deaths as a result of United States military action or shootings by private Western security teams protecting American diplomats and aid groups. The military said it was not known of any civilians killed.
Tensions also rose in northern Iraq after separatist Kurdish rebels ambushed a military unit near Turkey’s border with Iraq, killing at least 12 soldiers. Turkey’s government has threatened to take action against the rebels based in northern Iraq if the United States-led coalition in Iraq does not stop the Kurdish attacks on Turkish forces.
Hours after the ambush, an Iraqi army officer from the border guard forces, Col. Hussein Rashid, said Turkish forces fired about 15 artillery shells toward Kurdish village in the border area in northern Iraq. but there were no casualties. In Sadr City, the United States military said” an estimated 49 criminals” were killed in three separate engagements during a raid targeting a suspected rogue Shiite militia leader specializing in kidnapping operations for which he sought funding from Iran.
United States troops returned fire after coming under sustained attack from automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades from nearby buildings as they began to raid a series of buildings in district, according to a statement, which added that some 33 militants were killed in the firefight. Ground forces then called in airstrikes, which killed some six militants.
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