IRAQ: US troops fought running battles with insurgents in the Iraqi flashpoint town of Falluja yesterday, the gunfire killing at least seven people, including three children and a cameraman for US television network ABC.
In Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, four Iraqi paramilitaries and three armed suspects died during a pre-dawn raid by the US-backed force. In Baghdad, a series of night-time blasts wounded at least six people.
Falluja, about 60 kms west of Baghdad, is known for its fierce hostility to the US-led occupation. Insurgents fought US troops in the town for several hours, but it was unclear what sparked the violence.
"It was a bloody day in Falluja," Dr Mohammad Daham said. "We have been receiving casualties in great numbers." Burhan Mohammed Mazhour, a freelance Iraqi cameraman working for the American ABC network, was shot in the head covering the clashes. Witnesses said he was fired on by US troops.
The US military in Baghdad said it had no immediate information about the incident, or the fighting in Falluja.
Doctors at Falluja hospital said at least six civilians were killed. Reuters Television footage showed a boy wounded in the head screaming in pain as doctors bandaged him.
Several explosions, apparently from mortar bombs fired by guerrillas, echoed through the streets, which were deserted apart from ambulances and US military vehicles. A mosque loudspeaker broadcast the call to Friday prayers, but residents had to stay in their homes.
The latest violence coincided with the arrival of a United Nations team sent to Iraq to help work out details of the planned transfer of sovereignty back to Iraqis on June 30th. Electoral experts arrived in Baghdad yesterday, to look at the technicalities of holding elections for a transitional assembly, due by the end of January according to an interim constitution.
They will be joined late next week by another team, led by former Algerian foreign minister, Mr Lakhdar Brahimi, which will focus on the shape of the interim government that assumes power from the handover until those elections.
With less than 100 days to go until the handover, US officials are at pains to stress the improvements on the ground in Iraq since they invaded and occupied the country last year, citing mended water and electricity supplies, reopened schools and large numbers of new Iraqi security forces on the streets.
But security remains the main concern for most Iraqis. Insurgents have increasingly targeted civilians, Iraqi security forces and Iraqis working with Western organisations, seeing them as soft targets.
Four members of the Iraqi Civil Defence Corps (ICDC), a paramilitary force working alongside US troops and police, were killed during a raid near Tikrit at about 4 a.m. A US military spokeswoman said three armed suspects were also killed during the raid. Four other ICDC were wounded, and 21 suspects detained.
US troops and Iraqi security forces regularly raid homes and villages from their base in Tikrit, looking for insurgents. Earlier yesterday, New York-based Time magazine said an Iraqi translator it employed in Baghdad had died after being shot earlier this week.