US and Iraqi forces backed by attack helicopters fought gunmen in Baghdad in a day-long battle today, in the fiercest fighting in the capital since a major security crackdown was launched in February.
The US military said four Iraqi soldiers were killed and 16 American soldiers wounded. Three gunmen were killed, it said in a statement. Police said 10 people had died.
Two helicopters were also hit by ground fire but both returned to base, the US military said.
Two witnesses in Baghdad said they saw US helicopters fire on buildings where gunmen had holed up in the Sunni stronghold of Fadhil.
The US military said there was an operation in the area and that an Apache attack helicopter had been hit by small arms fire and had returned to base.
The Baghdad offensive is regarded as a last-ditch attempt to halt Iraq's slide into all-out civil war.
Northeast of Baghdad, a woman suicide bomber strapped with explosives under an Islamic gown killed 17 recruits outside a police station in the town of Muqdadiya, police said.
Police said 33 people were wounded in the bomb attack in the town, 90 kilometres from Baghdad. It was the first major attack on volunteers for local security forces this year.
Four US soldiers were killed yesterday and bring to about 45 the number of US troops killed in Iraq this month, half of them in the Baghdad area. Between 80 and 85 soldiers were killed in each of the first three months of the year, according to military figures.
Also today, British troops battled gunmen in the volatile Iraqi city of Basra after coming under fire during a routine search operation, the British military said.
"Ten of the enemy were hit. I don't know whether they were wounded or killed. There was a substantial exchange of gunfire," British military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Kevin Stratford-Wright said.
He said gunmen had opened fire on the British force from alleyways and rooftops with machinegun fire and several rocket-propelled grenades. The soldiers had returned fire from machineguns mounted on armoured personnel carriers.
Iraqi police said two gunmen were wounded and two arrested in the fighting in Basra's southwestern Qibla district. One policeman was also hurt.
The clash in the city, the hub of Iraq's main oil fields, comes less than a week after a roadside bomb killed four British soldiers and their civilian interpreter.
Meanwhile, US president George Bush today invited lawmakers to talk over disputed funding of the Iraq war but refused to negotiate on Democratic demands for a pullout date.
In the weeks-long battle, Mr Bush has issued near-daily veto threats of legislation backed by the Democratic-controlled Congress that would tie approval of more than $100 billion in war funds to a timetable for a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq.
Mr Bush said in a speech to the American Legion veterans group that he would submit a formal request to tap $1.6 billion in funds from other Pentagon accounts to pay for the war operations for now.
He again accused Democrats of failing to support the troops by refusing to send him a funding bill without the condition of a withdrawal date.
But he added as Congress returns from its Easter break, he wanted to meet with leaders of both parties so they "can report on progress on getting an emergency spending bill to my desk."
"We discuss the way forward on a bill that is a clean bill," Bush said.
White House officials made clear that was not a signal of a willingness to compromise.
"This is not a negotiation," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said, insisting it was chance for the lawmakers to "discuss with him how they're going to be able to bring to him a clean bill that he can sign".