About 37 suspected Iraqi militants were killed in an air strike on Friday during a raid targeting a “special groups” commander working with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, the US military said. US troops were engaged in what was described as a heavy firefight west of Baquba, capital of Diyala province, during a raid around dawn against a commander it said was linked to Iran’s elite Quds force. South of Baghdad, the US military said it was investigating the deaths of three civilians shot by US troops near a checkpoint manned by local tribal police in Abu Lukah village near Mussayab on Thursday. In the Baquba operation, support aircraft were called in when militants firing assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, with one insurgent thought to have an anti-aircraft weapon, attacked US soldiers. “Perceiving hostile intent, support aircraft engaged and killed an estimated 37 criminals and destroyed two buildings,” the US military said in a statement.
Police and hospital sources said 37 people were killed and another 35 wounded in the air strike. They said four houses were also destroyed.
Three US soldiers killed: Three US soldier were killed on Friday in two separate roadside bomb attacks in Iraq that wounded another five troops, the US military said. Two were killed and two others wounded when a device detonated during operations in southeastern Baghdad, a US military official said.
Another soldier was killed and three were wounded by a roadside bomb near the oil refinery town of Bayji in central Salaheddin province, according to a second statement. US forces announced earlier that a soldier had been killed on Thursday as a result of small arms fire during an operation in the south of Baghdad. Their deaths brought the overall toll of US military losses since the March 2003 invasion to 3,809, according to an AFP tally based on Pentagon figures.
The operation early on Friday targeted what the US military described as a “special groups” commander, a term it often uses to describe militants it says are linked to Iran. “Intelligence indicates he was responsible for facilitating criminal activity and is involved in the movement of various weapons from Iran to Baghdad,” the statement said. It did not say whether the man was among those killed.
While not specifically linking the man to the Mehdi Army militia loyal to fiery anti-American cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr, the military said it welcomed Sadr’s pledge in late August to suspend all Mehdi Army operations for up to six months. “We will not show the same restraint against those criminals who dishonour this pledge by attacking security forces and Iraqi citizens,” the statement said.