US troops clash with gunmen as four Iraqis killed by car bombs

TWO car bombs exploded in the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi yesterday, killing four Iraqis and prompting clashes between US troops and gunmen.

Also in Mosul, three decapitated bodies - two Iraqis and an unidentified corpse - have been found in and around the city, a coroner said, the latest in a grisly campaign of beheadings by militants who have been snatching foreigners and Iraqis accused of helping the United States.

US warplanes pounded the vast Baghdad slum of Sadr City overnight after an American patrol came under fire, the military said. Hospital officials said at least one Iraqi was killed.

Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said the basis for an agreement to end fighting in the Shi’ite stronghold has been reached with followers of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

“I met with some brothers in Sadr City and we laid the basis for an agreement to end all their armed manifestations and to give up all their arms,” Mr Allawi told a news conference.

US forces have been attacking Sadr City daily to knock out the cleric’s militia and pressure him to lay down his arms in favour of negotiations. Mr Al-Sadr’s militia, known as the Mahdi Army, staged an uprising in April, sparking fierce fighting in Sadr City, the southern holy city of Najaf and other areas. A peace deal was brokered following heavy fighting in Najaf in August, but clashes in Sadr City have continued.

Near Baghdad, one soldier from the US Army’s 13th Corps Support Command was killed on Monday night and two were injured when their convoy hit a homemade bomb, the military said. As of Monday, 1,058 members of the US military have died since the start of the war in March 2003, according to the Pentagon.

Meanwhile, 10 Iraqi policemen were killed in two separate attacks by militants south of Baghdad on Monday, police said yesterday.

Intensifying violence - including near-daily car bombs and persistent abductions - and the insurgents’ dominance in several cities have raised concerns about elections set for January.

In Ramadi, a homemade bomb exploded near the city’s Grand Mosque as a US military convoy passed. Four Iraqis inside a car near the explosion were killed and two bystanders were wounded Earlier, another car bomb exploded in Ramadi, sparking a gunbattle between US forces and gunmen. Two Iraqis were killed and four wounded in the fighting. In Mosul, a car bomb hit a US convoy, killing three Iraqi civilians and wounding four American soldiers, the US military said. Earlier, an Iraqi police officer said three Iraqis were killed and several others were wounded when US troops opened fire following the blast in the city’s Yarmuk neighbourhood. Mosul has seen increased rebel attacks recently, with frequent car bombings.

Its coroner, Riyadh Mohammed, said three beheaded bodies have been found in and around the city in the past two days.

Two were Iraqis, while the third was unidentified, he said.