BAGHDAD -- The U.S. military said yesterday that it had captured two militants from al-Qaida in Iraq wanted in the kidnapping of three American soldiers in May.
The men were captured during an air and ground assault Tuesday near the city of Iskandariyah, 25 miles south of Baghdad.
The paratroopers struck the town of Jurf al-Sakhr, which borders the western province of Anbar, which until recently has been a sanctuary for Islamic extremists.
Three soldiers - Pvt. Byron W. Fouty, Spc. Alex R. Jimenez and Pfc. Joseph J. Anzack Jr. - were abducted May 12 when fighters ambushed two U.S. Humvees that were on stakeout. Two other soldiers and an interpreter were found dead at the scene of the attack, outside the town of Mahmoudiya.
The body of Anzack, who was from Torrance, Calif., was found floating in the Euphrates River a few days later. An insurgent umbrella group, which includes al-Qaida in Iraq, later said in a video that it had executed the remaining soldiers and showed their dog tags.
In Baghdad, clashes yesterday between U.S. soldiers and Shiite militants in an eastern neighborhood left 19 people dead and 21 wounded, police and hospital officials said. A police officer said 10 of the dead were civilians.
The U.S. military confirmed that it had killed nine insurgents and two civilians during the fighting. Thirteen people were detained, it said in a statement.
The fighting in the capital's Amin district was sparked by a raid before dawn in which the U.S. military said soldiers captured two militants suspected in kidnappings and bombings. Insurgents retaliated by firing rocket-propelled grenades at U.S. troops in a neighboring building.
U.S. soldiers returned to Amin later in the morning, triggering a shootout and a barrage of mortar fire, police said.
Among those killed in the clash were an Iraqi photographer and a driver employed by the Reuters news service, the London-based agency said. Hospital officials identified them as photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and driver Saeed Chmagh, 40.
The two militants detained during the initial raid were members of "the special groups," an offshoot of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia, the military said. U.S. officials believe the cells are being supported by Iran.
Since spring, U.S. troops have intensified their raids into Shiite sections of Baghdad on the hunt for key leaders in Mahdi-affiliated groups thought to be involved in sectarian killings.
Twenty-eight bodies were found around Baghdad yesterday, 22 of them in western Baghdad where Shiite and Sunni militants are fighting for control of mixed districts.
A suicide bomber attacked a wedding party in the city of Tal Afar, 260 miles northwest of Baghdad, killing four civilians and wounding five, said the police chief, Brig. Gen. Ibrahim Jubouri.
Tal Afar has been plagued by attacks on its Shiite population by Sunni extremists. A suicide attack in March by a militant offering free flour from a truck sparked a rampage by off-duty Shiite police.
A U.S. soldier was killed yesterday in an attack east of Baghdad, the military said, without providing details.
Ned Parker writes for the Los Angeles Times.