Hundreds of US and Iraqi forces yesterday launched their biggest Baghdad raid in recent weeks, moving on foot through a central neighborhood and rounding up dozens of suspected insurgents, the military said.
About 500 members of Iraq's police and army swept through buildings in the Rashid neighborhood along with a "couple hundred" US soldiers, detaining 65 suspected militants, Lieutenant Colonel Clifford Kent of the US Army's 3rd Infantry Division said.
One Iraqi soldier suffered in-juries but no US casualties were reported in the largest joint US-Iraqi raid in Iraq's capital since the Fort Stewart, Georgia-based 3rd Infantry Division assumed responsibility for the city on Feb. 27, Kent said.
One suspected insurgent was also being treated for wounds, the military said in a statement.
In the western town of Qaim, witnesses said insurgents hit the main gates of a US military base with twin suicide car bombs early yesterday.
At least three civilians were injured, said Ammar Fuad, a doctor at the hospital where they were taken. US military officials had no immediate comment.
In Baqouba, 60km northeast of Baghdad, demonstrators chanted anti-US slogans, continuing three days of protests against US forces. Tens of thousands gathered on Saturday in Baghdad to call for US-led troops to leave, and more demonstrations were held on Sunday.
A Defense Ministry official said yesterday that Iraqi security forces have arrested a person claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of two French journalists abducted and later released in Iraq. Iraqi army soldiers detained Amer Hussein Sheikhan in the Mahmoudiya area on April 4, said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity. No further details were available.
Journalists Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot were released in December after four months in captivity.
A group claiming to have kidnapped a Pakistani diplomat in Iraq has demanded money for his release, a senior Pakistani government official said yesterday on condition of anonymity.
Malik Mohammed Javed, a deputy counselor at the Pakistani mission in Baghdad, went missing late Saturday after leaving home for prayers at a nearby mosque.
Pakistan, a key US ally in the war against terrorism, has refused to deploy peacekeepers and has urged its citizens to avoid coming here.
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