Eight die as US troops battle Iraqi militants

Eight people died and 50 were wounded when US and Iraqi forces clashed with rebels in northern Iraq today after they launched an operation to destroy an alleged militant cell in the northern town of Tal Afar.

A US observation Kiowa helicopter was hit by enemy fire and forced to make an emergency landing amid the fighting, said US Army Captain Angla Bowman. The aircraft’s two crew members were wounded, she said.

Fawazi Mohammed, the head of the local hospital, said at least eight people died and another 50 were wounded during the clashes. Many of the casualties were caused by a mortar shell explosion in a Tal Afar market, authorities said.

American soldiers killed two insurgents and captured another, while three Iraqi national guardsmen were injured in the fighting, the military said.

A US Stryker Brigade vehicle securing the helicopter’s site later came under attack by rocket-propelled grenades, the military said. Troops fought back, killing two attackers.

In response to heavy enemy fire, soldiers on the ground were forced to call for air support and a warplane dropped a bomb near the town, the military said. It wasn’t clear if there were any civilian casualties.

US intelligence believes Tal Afar is being used as a haven by rebels smuggling men and arms into Iraq from nearby Syria. It opted to launch the operation today in a bid to flush them out, the military said.

In Baghdad, several mortar rounds landed near a checkpoint in the Iraqi capital today close to the heavily fortified Green Zone, which houses Iraqi government offices and the US Embassy, said a spokeswoman for coalition forces in Baghdad.

It was not immediately known whether the shells caused any casualties.

The mortar rounds landed near the entrance to the Green Zone’s convention centre, where members of Iraq’s 100-member transitional assembly, known as the Iraqi Council, gathered for a meeting.

Mortar rounds also exploded near the American-occupied Al-Rashid hotel, not far from the Green Zone, the spokeswoman said.