Posted on 11/18/2006 11:52:41 PM PST by MinorityRepublican
(CBS/AP) Iraqi and American forces fought Sunni insurgents in an hours-long street battle Saturday in the increasingly violent city of Baqouba, as residents fled indoors under the rattle of automatic weapons fire and the blasts of rocket-propelled grenades.
City police said at least 18 people were killed and 19 wounded.
Nationwide, police and morgue officials said the death toll was 53, including those killed in Baqouba.
The city was chaotic following the fighting, and Baqouba's police media office said it was not known how many of the dead were Sunni insurgent fighters. The Americans reported no dead or wounded among U.S. forces.
Violence in Baquoba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, has skyrocketed in recent weeks, particularly after a major battle between Sunnis and Shiites in the nearby city of Balad last month. Scores of civilians in Baqouba have been killed in the violence in the past two weeks alone.
Elsewhere, coalition forces raided a Shiite militia stronghold in Baghdad searching for dozens of Iraqi hostages and combed through a rural area in southern Iraq where four American security contractors and an Austrian were kidnapped. Both efforts appeared to come up empty-handed.
Iraqi soldiers backed by U.S. helicopters swept through the Sadr City section of the capital after intelligence indicated that an armed group was holding some of the scores of Iraqis who were snatched from a Higher Education Ministry office building in Baghdad on Tuesday, the military said.
The Americans said the raid was conducted to rescue captives and disrupt kidnapping and insurgent cells. Asked if any hostages had been found, the military would only say: "No individuals were killed, injured or detained."
Iraqi police said the raid began at 2:30 a.m., swept through two sections of Sadr City and wounded three Iraqi civilians.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
insurgents!!?? these are terrorists!! fn clueless media.
Now that's the kind of stats I like to see.
"The Americans reported no dead or wounded among U.S. forces.
Now that's the kind of stats I like to see."
Thank the Democrats. Next week we are going to build schools, fix roads and give the Iraqis more electricity and water.
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