US and Iraqi forces Thursday rescued seven Sunni Arab men seized by suspected Shiite militiamen near Baghdad, part of a campaign to suppress sectarian death squads responsible for hundreds of deaths this year. Iraqi police said the trouble started when dozens of gunmen, some of them wearing military uniforms, raided two Sunni villages near Khan Bani Saad, 40 kilometres northeast of Baghdad, and abducted 10 young men. Village leaders and clerics alerted police and US soldiers, who rushed to the scene, clashed with the gunmen and rescued seven of the hostages, police said. Three others were missing and presumed taken by some of the gunmen who got away, police said.US troops killed at least one of the kidnappers and wounded another, Lt. Col. Thomas Fisher, commander of the 1st Battalion, 68th Armour, said. Some of the hostages had been severely beaten, Fisher told Associated Press TV News. More than 30 people were taken into custody, Iraqi police said, and interrogators were trying to determine their identities. Some of the gunmen told police they belonged to the Shiite militia loyal to radical cleric Moqtada Sadr and had come from Baghdad, Iraqi authorities said.