Three Marines and 40 militiamen die in gunbattles

THREE American soldiers and over 40 fighters loyal to a radical cleric were killed in another day of widespread bloodshed in Iraq yesterday.

The US seized the governor’s office from fighters loyal to Muqtada al-Sadr and killed an estimated 40 insurgents in battles east of the holy city, a US official said.

In Baghdad, a suicide attacker detonated a car bomb outside the so-called Green Zone that houses the US headquarters, killing five Iraqi civilians and an American soldier.