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US says 12 militants killed in Iraq gunfight
RAMADI, Iraq - US forces killed at least 12 insurgents and wounded three others in a six-hour gunbattle in Ramadi involving heavy machineguns, rocket-propelled grenades and air strikes, the US military said on Thursday. Residents in Ramadi said three buildings were destroyed in the clashes. A civil defence official and an ambulance driver, both of whom declined to be identified, said as many as 26 people were killed, including some women and children.

A Reuters photographer saw the bodies of an infant and a young boy who had been pulled from the rubble of one of the demolished buildings. At least one other body, which appeared to be that of an adult, was wrapped in a blanket.
I'm sure the Roooters photog has a fauxtograph of the scene.
“We have no reports of civilian casualties and there were no coalition casualties,” said Lieutenant Shawn Mercer, a spokesman for US Marines operating in western Iraq. “The firefight lasted approximately six hours, and resulted in at least 12 AIF (anti-Iraqi forces) killed and three wounded.”

He said the battle started on Wednesday evening when gunmen attacked US forces in the east of Ramadi, the capital of restive Anbar province and a volatile Sunni insurgent stronghold that US forces have always battled to control. “The scale of the fight eventually led to coalition forces using precision-guided munitions (air strikes) and causing damage to a number of structures,” Mercer said in an email response to questions.
Posted by: Steve White 2007-02-23
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=181247