BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Iraqi forces backed by U.S. aircraft battled militants Friday in a Shiite stronghold of eastern Baghdad, killing or wounding more than 30 fighters and capturing an extremist leader who was the target of the raid, Iraqi and U.S. officials said.
In another operation, Iraqi troops backed by U.S. soldiers arrested a top regional commander of a Shiite militia near the southern city of Hillah, an American statement said. The moves appeared part of a crackdown on sectarian militias blamed for the escalation in Shiite-Sunni violence that has raised fears of civil war in recent months.
Sectarian attacks continued a day after a suicide car bomber attacked Iranian pilgrims near a Shiite Muslim shrine south of Baghdad, killing 12 people and wounding 39. A series of bombs and a mortar round targeting the main Islamic weekly service struck four Sunni mosques in the Baghdad area and a Shiite mosque in northern Iraq, killing 17 people and wounding more than 50. The explosions in Baghdad defied a four-hour driving ban aimed at preventing such attacks during Friday prayers. Tit-for-tat attacks on houses of worship have stoked tensions between Shiite and Sunni Muslims, especially after the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra, an act that triggered reprisal violence against Sunni mosques and clerics. |