Dozens of Iraqi fighters attacked a U.S. convoy with gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades, sparking a clash that saw American soldiers kill 26 fighters. Some 40 fighters hit the military police and American artillery units late Sunday as the Americans traveled along a road 20 miles southeast of Baghdad, the US military said in a detailed account Monday.
According to The AP, six American soldiers and seven fighters were wounded, and one person was arrested.
After the attack, US forces recovered six rocket-propelled grenade launchers, 16 rockets, 13 machine guns, 22 assault weapons, more than 2,900 rounds of ammunition and 40 hand grenades.
Also Monday, in the western Baghdad neighborhood of Amiriyah, gunmen in two speeding cars opened fire on an Iraq army foot patrol, killing one soldier and wounding another, police Capt. Talib Thamir said.
In Samarra, a car bomb went off near an Iraqi army checkpoint, injuring several civilians, including women and children, according to police and hospital officials.
The U.S. military reported the death of one of its troops: A U.S. soldier killed a day earlier during action in Anbar province, which contains the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi.
The U.S. military also said Monday that ten men captured by Iraqi soldiers last week had confessed to staging a March 9 Baghdad car-bomb attack near the Agricultural Ministry and a hotel favored by Westerners. At least four people, including the attackers and a guard, were killed in that attack.
