American troops killed 54 Iraqis in a fierce battle to fight off ambushes on armoured convoys carrying large quantities of banknotes in the tense Iraqi town of Samarra, the US army said today. Local police said eight civilians died in the battle.
A US soldier was also killed west of Baghdad today after his patrol was attacked, the military said.
But confusion hung over the Samarra death toll, which a US military spokesman at the town earlier put at 46.
Military spokesman Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt told a Baghdad news conference that 54 "enemy combatants" were killed in firefights that raged for most of Sunday afternoon in Samarra, 100 km (62 miles) north of Baghdad.
"In this engagement an estimated 54 enemy personnel were killed, an estimated 22 enemy were wounded, and one is in captivity," he said.
Colonel Frederick Rudesheim, commander of the US 4th Infantry Division's 3rd Brigade Combat Team, earlier told reporters at the US base in Samarra that 46 guerrillas were killed and 11 captured.
Police said eight civilians had also been killed, including an Iranian pilgrim. Doctors said they had only seen six bodies, but Cool Rudesheim said this did not mean US forces had misjudged the number of insurgents killed.
"The adversary we face in this area will not bring all the casualties to the local hospitals," he said.
One policeman in Samarra, Captain Sabti Awad, said American troops fired randomly, killing and wounding civilians, after the US convoys were attacked while they delivered money to banks. Col Rudesheim said troops only fired aimed shots.
Col Rudesheim said some of the attackers wore the black clothing and headscarves of deposed President Saddam Hussein's Fedayeen militia.
Several burned-out cars littered the streets of the town, a focus of anti-US anger in the "Sunni triangle" region. Dried blood stained the dust outside a mosque.
A series of guerrilla ambushes across Iraq at the weekend killed seven Spanish intelligence agents, two South Korean contractors, two Japanese diplomats and their Iraqi driver, a Colombian contractor and two US soldiers.
The bloodshed - and grisly photographs showing Iraqis kicking the corpses of the dead Spanish agents - increased debate in countries allied to Washington on the risks of getting involved in the mission to stabilise and rebuild Iraq.