US-Iraqi forces kill 13 militants in clashes

AMERICAN and Iraqi forces clashed with insurgents north of Baghdad early yesterday, killing 13 Iraqi militants, the US military said.

Iraqi forces and US troops suffered no casualties in the fighting in Buhriz, a former Saddam stronghold about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad that often has been the scene of clashes.

Qayser Hameed, an emergency worker at Baqouba General Hospital, said the bodies of an Iraqi police officer and a civilian were brought to the hospital. He said six civilians were wounded.

US and Iraqi National Guard forces entered Buhriz about 3.30am and destroyed an apparent staging ground for attacks on coalition forces, said Maj Neal O'Brien, spokesman for the 1st Infantry Division.

Over the next six hours, insurgents fought back with small arms fire and mortars, O'Brien said.

Residents ran for cover as a US Apache helicopter hovered overhead, and loud explosions and bullets ricocheted off walls.

Iraqi fighters, some wearing white robes and red scarves over their faces but most clad in black clothing and ski masks, roamed through the town carrying machine-guns and grenade launchers.

The clashes killed 13 insurgents, and the US military confiscated an array of weapons, including a large artillery round and three rocket-propelled grenade launchers, O'Brien said.

Elsewhere in Iraq, a suspected car bomb blew up in western Baghdad yesterday. The explosion happened on a major east-west highway, but the military says nobody was hurt.

Iraqi police say a former regional official in the Saddam regime was killed in a drive-by shooting in Baghdad.

The son of Brig Khaled Dawoud, former head of the city's Nahyia district, was also killed in the attack in the southern Baghdad suburb of al-Dora, said Lt. Mustafa Abdullah al-Dulaimi, a police officer in the neighborhood.

Also yesterday, two Pakistanis working for a Kuwaiti company were reported missing and feared kidnapped.

Pakistan's Foreign Office said the two nationals, an engineer and his driver, have been missing since an attack on their truck on Friday.

"It is not known yet if they have been kidnapped. No group has contacted us for kidnapping them or made any demand," said Masood Khan, a ministry spokesman.

In the oil-rich northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, five people were killed in fighting overnight, including a Kurdish mother and her two sons when their house was raked by gunfire.

An Iraqi policeman who guards an oil pipeline was killed by gunmen as he waiting for a ride home from work. A militiaman with the pro-US Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party was also slain in a drive-by shooting, police said.