Intense house-to-house fighting between fighters and Iraqi police north of Baghdad has killed 43 people, including 24 officers, the US military said. Iraqi officials, however, said 12 Iraqi officers were killed. US soldiers later joined the fight, aiding in a counter-attack that left 18 fighters dead, the US military said on Friday. Police fought back and US soldiers nearby were diverted from another mission, assisted by air cover. One Iraqi civilian was also killed, eight fighters wounded, and 27 others captured, the military said. The Iraqi police unit was based in Baquba, 60km northeast of Baghdad. The ambush took place at 6.30am local time (0330 GMT) on Thursday.
Also on Friday, US forces ventured into the Baghdad stronghold of Mahdi Army leader, Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, searching for a kidnapped US soldier, two days after another raid in the area stoked tensions with the Iraqi government. Iraq's interior ministry, which commands the police, gave a slightly different version of Thursday's clash in north Baghdad, and said those killed included Abbas Al-Ameri, a police chief, and his brother. Abdel-Karim Khalaf, a ministry spokesman, said forces moved into the area after learned of the presence of fighters who were behind the ambush on Monday of a convoy of buses carrying police recruits in which at least 15 were killed 25 wounded. Khalf denied police had been surprised and put the death toll among officers at 12, with 19 fighters killed and 28 captured. He described the enemy fighters as hardcore remnants of Saddam Hussein's former Baathist government joined by "Takfiri elements", a term for Islamic radicals that include groups such as al-Qaeda in Iraq. The area around Baquba has seen heavy fighting in recent weeks between armed Shia and Sunni groups carrying out brutal revenge killings.
Meanwhile, four people were killed and five wounded in an attack on a van carrying Shias returning from the funeral of a relative in the city of Najaf, said a spokesman for the police force in surrounding Diyala province.
In other news, witnesses and two officials of the Mahdi Army said there was a strong US troop presence backed by air support in the northeast part of Sadr City on Friday. They reported clashes in the area but it was not immediately clear who was involved. "It's ongoing operations specifically related to the search for the missing soldier," said US Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Garver. The Wednesday raid also targeted a mosque in connection with the hunt for the missing US soldier, who left the safety of the fortified Green Zone on Monday to visit a relative.