US forces kill three Baghdad insurgents

Three Iraqi insurgents were killed and three others injured when US-led forces conducted a raid early today in the Baghdad neighbourhood of Sadr City.

The incident occurred about 12.30am local time when a joint US-Iraqi force was patrolling a neighbourhood in the southern part of the Shiite slum, searching for an insurgent cell suspected of smuggling weapons, including the devastating explosively formed penetrators, from Iran, the military said.

Forces came under fire from two buildings and, after a gun battle, called in an airstrike that killed three armed insurgents, the military said.

Three civilians were injured in the raid and treated by US-led forces. The military also detained four of the insurgents.

Iraqi police and medical officials said the airstrike damaged three houses and killed eight civilians and wounded nine others. The reason for the discrepancy in the two accounts was not immediately clear.