 Insurgents armed with automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades have skirmished with U.S. and Iraqi forces in Sunni Muslim areas of Baghdad, killing at least three police and seven insurgents. Guerrillas attacked a police station in the northern area of Aadhamiya on Saturday killing at least three policemen, police said. Columns of thick black smoke rose into the air and gunfire and explosions echoed over the rooftops while U.S. Apache helicopters buzzed overhead. U.S. tanks were rolling through the streets. One armoured convoy clattered past carrying away two wrecked U.S. vehicles. In the western Amriya district, gunmen in several cars opened fire on a group of Iraqi National Guards deployed in the area. A guard at the scene said seven of the assailants were killed in the gunbattle that ensued and seven passersby wounded. The fighting came a day after Iraqi troops backed by U.S. soldiers raided a major mosque in Aadhamiya and clashed with worshippers. At least four people were killed in the raid on the Abu Hanifa mosque and nine wounded, the Muslim Clerics Association and witnesses said. |