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Iraq

Iraqi civilians reported killed in battles, blasts

BAGHDAD - U.S. troops battled arms smugglers and fighters near the Iraqi town of Qaim along the Syrian border Tuesday, killing an unknown number of foreign insurgents, the U.S. military said. Local hospital officials reported at least nine people killed in clashes in the same area and said they believed the dead were civilians.

The raids came as car bombs in two northern cities killed a total of 10 people, and as the Iraqi government said it captured a former member of Saddam Hussein's regime at a farm northeast of Baghdad.

Insurgents opened fire when the U.S. troops began their raid on the smuggling ring Tuesday, and several militants, including at least one suicide bomber, were killed, the U.S. military said in a statement. No Americans were injured, it said.

Residents reported violent clashes before dawn Tuesday in and around Qaim, although it was unclear if the violence was related to the raid.

Without providing details, al-Qaida in Iraq, led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for the Qaim clashes.

The claim on the Internet could not be verified.

Many residents stayed in on Tuesday, and some families fled their homes in two southwestern neighborhoods and moved to other parts of the town fearing renewed clashes.

Masked gunmen were seen taking up positions in Qaim on Tuesday, residents said.

U.S. military officials said that two other raids in the area over the last week had resulted in the capture of smugglers who "confessed to bringing weapons, foreign fighters and money for terrorists across the Syrian border into Iraq."

The Iraqi government said it captured a former member of Hussein's regime, Fadhil Ibrahim Mahmud al-Mashadani. The government said Mashadani was the leader of the military bureau in Baghdad under Hussein and it accused him of being "among the main facilitators of many terrorist attacks in Iraq."

"Mashadani is believed to be personally responsible for coordinating and funding attacks against the Iraqi people," the statement said.

U.S. officials did not have any information.

Polish Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski, meanwhile, said his country wanted to pull its troops out of Iraq in the first few weeks of 2006, the latest blow to the U.S.-led coalition.

In the northern city of Mosul, a suicide car bomber killed five civilians and injured four, underlining the challenges facing Iraqi security forces being groomed to take over from multinational troops.

In nearby Talafar, a car bomb killed five people and wounded eight, including seven children, the U.S. military said.

[Last modified April 13, 2005, 01:31:06]