American soldiers battled Iraqi resistance fighters in northern Iraq early Sunday in clashes that left two dead and 32 injured, The AP reported.
U.S. forces were attacked twice before dawn near Tal Afar, about 50 kilometers west of Mosul, said US Army Capt. Angela Bowman. Soldiers returned fire during both assaults, killing two of the attackers, she said.
Provincial health chief Rabie Yasin al-Khalil conveyed 32 people were wounded in the firefights.
Meanwhile, Iraq's prime minister vowed to crush Shiite fighter who refuse to disarm. "We will confront this with force... It seems that there are some elements in the Mehdi Army that insist on making things more difficult in Iraq outside of Najaf," he told Iraq's state-run Iraqiya television late Saturday.
"The government will not permit private armed groups to operate outside Najaf regardless of whether they are Al-Qaeda groups, Zarqawi groups, bin Laden or the so-called Mehdi Army," Allawi stated. (albawaba.com)
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