U.S. kills 26 militants in Baghdad

By Mussab Al-Khairalla and Alister Bull

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. troops killed about 26 suspected militants in Baghdad's Sadr City on Saturday in one of the fiercest clashes in the Shi'ite stronghold since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

Residents of the east Baghdad slum district, a bastion of fiery Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and his Mehdi Army militia, said the fighting lasted six hours and involved helicopter-fired missile strikes.

The U.S. military said American forces staged two separate raids into Sadr City targeting militants suspected of close ties to "Iranian terror networks" and who were responsible for bringing Iranian weapons into Iraq.

"Coalition Forces killed an estimated 26 terrorists and detained 17 suspected secret cell terrorists during the two operations," a U.S. military statement said. There were no civilian casualties, the U.S. military said separately.

A witness at a Sadr City hospital said nine civilians were wounded. Other residents said several cars were burned and they insisted all the people killed in the clashes were civilians.

A Sadr aid disputed the claim of heavy casualties. Ammar al-Saadi told Reuters that fewer than 10 people had been killed, with three wounded and six detained in the raids.

People were still cleaning up hours later alongside homes whose walls were pock-marked by bullets fired in the fighting.

Sadr City resident Ali Jasim was asleep on the roof of his home when the fighting broke out.

"They came in and started firing randomly in the streets and I got back into my bed because I was afraid I would be shot if I tried to watch," he said.

Elsewhere, a suicide bomber dressed as a policeman killed at least six people on Saturday when he blew himself up outside a police recruitment centre north east of Baghdad, an Iraqi army source said. The source said 30 people were wounded when the bomber detonated his explosives beside a queue of people waiting to enter the recruitment office.

A separate witness said the death toll was much higher from the attack in al-Muqdadiya, 90 km (50 miles) north east of Baghdad.

MEHDI ARMY

The U.S. military has launched a major offensive around the capital to crack down on Shi'ite militias and drive out Sunni Islamist al Qaeda fighters.

The operations are backed by 28,000 extra American troops ordered to Iraq by U.S. President George W. Bush.

The pre-dawn raids, which the U.S. military said were met with a hail of gunfire and rocket propelled grenades, risk escalating tensions with the Mehdi Army -- Sadr's powerful militia that has kept a relatively low profile since the latest clampdown got under way.