The United States military in Iraq on Wednesday intensified air strikes against the insurgent strongpoint of Fallujah as clashes between militants and security forces in the Baghdad suburb of Sadr City eased overnight.
Meanwhile, unidentified militants continued to target Iraqi politicians. Interim National Council member Hashim al-Hamdani escaped on Wednesday an attempt on his life in the northern city of Mosul, where a son of the city governor was killed in a similar attack just the previous day. Two of his aides were, however, killed in the attack.
In Ramadi, west of Baghdad, militants abducted on Wednesday deputy provincial governor Bassam Mohammed, police said. No further details were available.
At least eight Iraqis were killed and 23 wounded in US air raids on the city of Fallujah overnight and early on Wednesday, medical sources said.
Hundreds of residents fleeing the suburbs in the east and south of the city, where the air strikes are concentrated, were stopped at checkpoints manned by US soldiers who searched anyone entering or leaving Fallujah.
Columns of smoke were seen rising from areas in the east of the city, where US military sources say militants are entrenched.
City streets were empty on Wednesday except for Iraqi police patrols. Iraqi army units were located in positions just outside Fallujah.
Also on Wednesday, two US soldiers were killed in separate attacks in and near Baghdad, the US military said.
One soldier was killed and two were wounded when a roadside bomb detonated near a patrol in eastern Baghdad, said an official statement.
In Balad, north of Baghdad, one US soldier was killed and another wounded in a second roadside bomb explosion that targeted a military convoy.
The number of US troops killed in Iraq since the March 2003 US-led invasion of the country has now exceeded 1 000.
In Dawar, 25km south of Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit, US troops arrested three men believed to be supporters of Izzet Ibrahim al-Douri, Saddam’s second-in-command in the Revolutionary Command Council and the most senior figure from the former regime still at large.
Two of the three arrested men reportedly belong to the same tribe as al-Douri, who was reported to have been captured earlier in the week. The reports were later denied by US and Iraqi officials.
Earlier, the Iraqi Health Ministry announced that 19 Iraqis were killed and 93 others wounded in clashes in Sadr City in the 24-hour period until Wednesday morning. Sadr City is a poor suburb of Baghdad home to many militia loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
The suburb was quiet on Wednesday after unrest the previous day, with no reports of clashes or victims. A ceasefire had reportedly been announced by an al-Sadr representative.
On Tuesday, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani urged for clashes all over Iraq and not just in the holy city of Najaf, to stop. — Sapa-DPA