US and Iraqi troops have killed at least 300 militants in battles around the holy city of Najaf, officials say. Fighting has continued since US-backed Iraqi army units clashed with the previously unidentified group on the northern edge of Najaf on Sunday. Three Iraqi soldiers were killed and 21 were injured, Iraqi sources said. The US military said two of its troops died when their helicopter was shot down, but did not confirm any of the Iraqi casualty figures. An Iraqi official in the Najaf governor's office told the BBC that 21 Iraqi soldiers had been injured in the clashes, which occurred in a neighbourhood called Zarqa. The BBC's world affairs correspondent Mike Wooldridge in Baghdad says as yet there is no independent confirmation of the scale of casualties in the fighting and there is still uncertainty over the identity of the group of several hundred armed men. Security tightened Unnamed Iraqi sources said that the insurgents were from a previously unknown Shiite militant group calling themselves the Army of Heaven, or Soldiers of Heaven. Asaad Abu Gilel, the governor of Najaf province, said that the gunmen had been intent on attacking Shia clerics and pilgrims marking the holy festival of Ashura. "They are well-equipped and they even have anti-aircraft missiles. They are backed by some locals," he said. There was no let up from the bloodshed on Sunday, as seven Iraqi children died when their schools were targeted - five in Baghdad, where a mortar hit a high school, and two in a bomb attack at a primary school in Ramadi Pupils at the secondary school in the mainly Sunni Adil district in west Baghdad were taking a break from lessons when two mortars landed in the yard. Five girls were killed and 20 other pupils injured as the blast blew out classroom windows, spraying the children with debris and shards of glass. It was not clear who fired the mortars but the school is in a district which has been the scene of frequent reprisal attacks by Sunni and Shia extremists. A primary school in Ramadi, north-west of Baghdad, was caught up in the violence when a suicide truck bomber attacked a nearby Iraqi security base. The wave of attacks comes as Iraqi and US forces are gearing up for a security crackdown in a bid to halt the sectarian violence that is claiming hundreds of lives in Iraq every week.
Photo caption
Smoke rises in a distance from an area where a US helicopter was reported downed
BBC
Hundreds killed in Iraq battles
- Publish date:29/01/2007
- Section:WORLD HEADLINES