IRAQ:US and Iraqi forces backed by attack helicopters fought gunmen in Baghdad in a day-long battle yesterday, in the fiercest fighting in the capital since a security crackdown launched in February.
The US military said four Iraqi soldiers were killed and 16 American soldiers wounded. Three gunmen were killed, it stated.
Police said 10 people had died.
Two helicopters were also hit by ground fire but both returned to base, the US military said.
Northeast of Baghdad, a woman suicide bomber killed 17 recruits outside a police station in the town of Muqdadiya.
Two witnesses including a local journalist said Apache attack helicopters hovering low over the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Fadhil in Baghdad repeatedly fired rockets at buildings in which gunmen had holed up.
The military statement said one helicopter had attacked gunmen with machine gun fire.
The witnesses said they saw several bodies lying in a street, with residents too afraid to move them. Other bodies had been moved to a local mosque, said local journalist Abu Omar, a resident of Fadhil.
US military spokesman Lieut Col Christopher Garver said an Apache and a Black Hawk transport helicopter had been struck by small arms fire. No crew members were hurt, the military said.
The two-month-old Baghdad offensive is regarded as a last-ditch attempt to halt Iraq's slide into all-out sectarian war between majority Shia and minority Sunni Arabs who were dominant under Saddam Hussein. Until now, gunmen have stuck to hit-and-run attacks or roadside bombs to target US and Iraqi forces during the security crackdown.
US president George Bush is sending 30,000 more troops to Iraq, mainly Baghdad, the epicentre of Iraq's violence.
He said setting timetables for withdrawing US forces from Iraq, as sought by Democratic-controlled Congress, would undermine the Baghdad security plan.
Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki told reporters during a visit to Tokyo that he also saw no need to set a timetable.
"We are working strongly in order to build forces in the fastest time possible so we can exercise our right in asking the multi-national forces to leave Iraq, which is better than the issues being tied to a timetable," he said.
Mr Omar said the operation in Fadhil started before dawn. He said he saw helicopters rocket a number of buildings while gunmen armed with belt-fed machine guns roamed the streets. The second witness said he saw one US helicopter trailing smoke.
Both said fighting later shifted out of Fadhil into the neighbouring Sheikh Omar and Bab al-Muadham districts. Police said 33 people were wounded in the bomb attack in Muqdadiya, 90km (56 miles) from Baghdad. It was the first major attack on volunteers for local security forces this year.- (Reuters)