WORLD> Middle East
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WORLD> Middle East
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Suicide attack west of Baghdad; at least 12 dead
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-06-26 22:09 Targets of those attacks have included local administrations which the US and Iraqi authorities have been trying to shore up to maintain the security gains since last year. Also Thursday, American troops killed two suspected al-Qaida militants and captured 15, including two Egyptians, in raids Thursday in central and northern Iraq, the US military said. The two extremists were killed in Sharqat, about 135 miles north of Baghdad, after they refused to surrender to US troops who had surrounded the building where the pair had taken refuge, the US said in a statement. One of the dead was identified as a militant cell leader who was the target of the raid, the US said. Three people were taken into custody. The two Egyptians were detained in Abu Ghraib on the western edge of Baghdad for allegedly helping mount suicide attacks in the area, the US said. A third person was seized near Abu Ghraib for allegedly providing weapons and suicide vests to Sunni militants. The other arrests occurred during raids west of Sinjar in northern Iraq, Mosul and the Bijar area between Mosul and Baghdad, the military said. At least 10 American soldiers have been killed this week in a spike of violence. That has pushed the monthly death toll for American troops in Iraq to at least 26 -- well below figures of last year but an increase over the 19 who died in May, the lowest monthly tally of the war. In all, at least 4,110 US military service members have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. |
