Iraqi security forces have killed 23 militants in Baghdad in a series of raids and firefights since Sunday, the Defence Ministry said on Monday.Another two militants were killed in Mosul and one in Ramadi, the Sunni insurgent stronghold in western Al-Anbar province, the ministry said in a statement. “Iraqi forces chased terrorists in different operations during the last 24 hours and killed 23 terrorists and arrested four others” in Baghdad, it said.
Meanwhile, bloodletting continued in Iraq on Monday, with at least seven people killed in a series of attacks in Baghdad. Gunmen ambushed a bus carrying workers to Baghdad international airport and sprayed passengers with bullets, killing four and wounding nine, a security official and a medic said. The bus was ambushed in the Sunni neighbourhood of Jihad in west Baghdad, near the airport. In other violence, three Iraqis were killed in a bomb attack in a market at Zafaraniyah in south Baghdad, a security official said. The bomb was placed under a parked car in the market, he added.
Separately, three devotees returning from the annual Haj pilgrimage to Mecca were wounded near Baghdad when their bus struck a roadside bomb. Also, insurgents have killed another two US soldiers in Iraq, taking the militaryÂ’s losses since the March 2003 invasion to 3,005, the military said on Monday.
One soldier died of wounds during combat operations in Salaheddin province on Sunday, it said in a statement. Another soldier was killed north of Baghdad on Sunday when his patrol was attacked by small arms fire while it was repairing a crater in a road caused by a bomb.