Iraqi army battles gunmen in Shiite neighborhoods

Baghdad, Iraq ? Iraqi forces backed by a U.S. helicopter battled Sunni gunmen Friday south of Baghdad, and at least 11 combatants died. U.S. troops killed five Iraqis – including two women and a child – in a separate exchange of fire.

An extended ban on vehicles held down violence Friday in Baghdad after one of the most violent weeks in the capital this year, but four people were wounded by a bomb outside a Sunni mosque, police said.

The deadly firefight occurred in two mostly Shiite neighborhoods of Mahmoudiya, a town 20 miles south of Baghdad where 50 people were killed in a market this week in an attack by Sunni gunmen.

About 1:30 p.m. Friday, gunmen opened fire in two neighborhoods of Mahmoudiya and Iraqi security forces responded, Capt. Ibrahim Abdullah said.

A U.S. military statement said 11 people were killed: five gunmen, three Iraqi soldiers and three policemen. An Iraqi statement put the death toll at 18: 11 attackers, four soldiers and three policemen. The differing figures could not be reconciled.

The civilian deaths came in an early-morning raid in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, where American troops were looking for associates of al-Qaida in Iraq, the U.S. military said.

Iraqi soldiers search a man and inspect his vehicle at the start of a vehicle curfew in central Baghdad, Iraq. In an attempt to increase security, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered an extended vehicle curfew Friday in Baghdad in hopes of containing a surge of violence.

The Americans took fire from a rooftop and “several men were seen moving around,” the military said in a statement. The troops ordered people to leave the building, but “these instructions were ignored,” it said.

A U.S. aircraft fired on the building, and “a third attempt to call the occupants out of the buildings then failed before force was escalated,” the statement added. “The troops secured the area using a combination of aerial and ground fire.”

The bodies of two men, two women and a young girl were found in the rubble, the U.S. military said. They included two of the girl’s aunts, an uncle and a grandfather, police said. They did not know about the child’s parents.

“We regret that civilians are hurt or killed while coalition forces search to rid Iraq of terrorism,” the military said.

The acknowledgment of the civilian deaths follows a string of allegations that U.S. soldiers in Iraq have killed unarmed civilians.

Other Iraq news

¢ Two former Pentagon officials, including an acting secretary of the Navy, have been accused of scheming with a banned American contractor to get lucrative rebuilding contracts in Iraq, The Associated Press has learned.
The contracting firm, Custer Battles LLC, was suspended two years ago by the military for submitting millions of dollars in fake invoices.
The charges come in a sealed federal lawsuit, a copy of which was obtained by The AP. The current suit names former acting Navy Secretary Hansford T. Johnson, former acting Navy Undersecretary Douglas Combs and Custer Battles LLC officials.
¢ The U.S. Army soldiers accused of raping an Iraqi teenager and killing her and her family were “numb” from the effects of combat, and their statements in the case may have been somewhat scripted by investigators, a defense lawyer said Friday.
David Sheldon, a Washington, D.C.-based attorney for one of the soldiers – Spc. James Barker – said his client was interrogated for about eight hours and that by the end of the interview, two Army criminal investigators “were saying this is how you’re going to say it.”
Sheldon also revealed for the first time Friday that military prosecutors plan to have some Iraqis testify at the hearing of the four accused soldiers. The Article 32 hearing, which is comparable to a grand jury proceeding, is scheduled to begin early next month in Iraq.
¢ Four U.S. soldiers who are accused of murdering suspected insurgents during a raid in Iraq said officers in their chain of command gave them orders to “kill all military-age males,” according to sworn statements obtained by The Associated Press.
Staff Sgt. Raymond L. Girouard, Spc. William B. Hunsaker, Pfc. Corey R. Clagett and Spc. Juston R. Graber are charged with murder and other offenses in the shooting deaths of three of the men during the May 9 raid.