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Shiite militia leader captured in U.S. raid

Accounts vary on another raid in the same town that kills at least 25.

BAGHDAD - A Shiite militia leader accused of forcibly removing Sunnis from their homes north of Baghdad was captured in a raid, the U.S. military said Saturday.

The militia leader was detained Friday after U.S. forces raided Khalis, a Shiite enclave of 150,000 people in the volatile Diyala province about 50 miles north of Baghdad. The man led a group of 20 insurgents that was allegedly responsible for a July attack in which Sunnis were forcibly removed and their homes and farms were destroyed, the military said, adding no one was killed or wounded.

The commander, who was not identified, also was suspected of ambushing a Sunni van driver, shooting him and throwing his body in the Tigris River, the military said.

The U.S. military also reiterated Saturday that 25 people killed Friday in a raid in the same town were insurgents.

"We have confirmed that the 25 criminals who were killed were responsible for the attack on our forces and in fact were members of an extremist group operating in the Baqubah region," the military said in a statement.

A different account was offered by local leaders and hospital officials. They said U.S. aircraft bombed the neighborhood repeatedly, killing at least seven children and local men who organized watches to guard against extremist attacks.

Also Saturday, Baghdad provincial Gov. Hussein al-Tahan escaped unharmed when his convoy came under attack in a predominantly Sunni district in the southwest of the capital. An Associated Press Television News cameraman who was in the governor's convoy filmed the gunbattle between governor's guards and the attackers.

In other developments:

-In Baghdad, a U.S. soldier was killed and three others were wounded Saturday by a roadside bombing while they were taking part in a raid against suspected insurgents in the capital, the U.S. military said in a statement.

-The Iraqi government announced plans to sue an Iraqi judge who led the U.S.-established Commission on Public Integrity and testified before a U.S. congressional committee last week for allegedly smuggling documents, libeling the prime minister and corruption. Radhi Hamza al-Radhi, who is seeking asylum in the United States, has said he was forced to flee Iraq after trying to unearth instances of government fraud and abuse.

-More than 1,000 residents gathered Saturday in the Shiite-dominated western neighborhood of Washash in Baghdad to protest concrete partitions that the military says have been erected for their safety. Protesters said the walls serve more to keep them cut off from the rest of the capital. Salam Rasheed al-Iqabi, a local sheik, said the wall paralyzes the movement of the people. "We want the wall removed," he told AP Television News.

-In Poland, a doctor said the country's ambassador to Iraq was being kept in an artificial coma after suffering severe burns in an apparent assassination attempt last week in downtown Baghdad. The ambassador, Gen. Edward Pietrzyk, was wounded when his convoy was ambushed with roadside bombs while traveling Wednesday through Baghdad. A Polish security guard and two others were killed.

[Last modified October 7, 2007, 02:00:07]