Four US soldiers, 20 militants killed in Iraq operations

Jan 9, 2008, 14:33 GMT

Baghdad - Four US soldiers and at least 20 suspected militants have been killed in separate operations across Iraq, the US military announced Wednesday, while a total of 32 extremist suspects were detained by US and Iraqi forces.

Three of the US troops died from injuries sustained Tuesday during an operation in northern Iraq's Salahaddin province, in which two soldiers were also injured.

The fourth was killed a day earlier in south-eastern Baghdad when militants opened fire on a US patrol, according to a military statement.

The deaths bring to 11 the number of US troops killed in January. At least 3,915 US personnel have been killed since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Meanwhile in the north-eastern Iraqi province of Diyala, at least 20 militant suspects have been killed and 10 arrested in a joint US- Iraqi military operation launched Tuesday under the codename 'Operation Iron Harvest' and targeting al-Qaeda militants.

'Working together, Iraqi and coalition forces will rid the north of extremist violence and will pave the way for a secure and safe northern Iraq,' the US military statement continued.

Separately, Iraqi authorities arrested 22 suspects and uncovered a weapons cache in Karbala, 100 kilometres south of Baghdad, security sources told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Security has been stepped up in the city ahead of a major Shiite religious celebration set to take place on Thursday.

Authorities have deployed more than 6,000 policemen atop high buildings and assigned about 22,000 soldiers to man the entrances Karbala ahead of the Ashoura religious festival, during which many Shiites make pilgrimages to the city's shrine traditionally held to be the tomb of Imam Hussein.

Most of the violence in Karbala, a city with a majority Shiite population, is blamed on militants belonging to the Mahdi Army, loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.