US forces launched air strikes against insurgents who overran police stations and other areas in the Iraqi city of Baquba today, killing about 20 of them, the US military said.
Explosions and gunfire echoed across Baquba, 65 km northeast of the capital, as US and Iraqi forces battled to restore order after insurgents attacked a police station and US troops at a traffic circle, witnesses said.
Another police station in the town of Buhriz, just south of Baquba, was also attacked.
US planes dropped two 500-pound bombs on Baquba after 15 rebels came in from outside the city and positioned themselves on a rooftop, set up road blocks and planted roadside bombs.
About 20 insurgents were killed in gun battles and the air strikes. Four US soldiers were wounded.
A doctor at Baquba hospital said at least eight people had been brought in dead from the fighting, including one policeman. Eleven people came in wounded, among them two policemen.
Insurgents hijacked two of the hospital's ambulances during the unrest, the doctor said. He did not know what happened to their drivers. Hundreds of people took to the streets in the northeast of the city, protesting against the US-backed local government and calling for US forces to leave Iraq.
Gunmen stormed the police station in the nearby town of Buhriz using machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.
A gunbattle ensued and four police cars were burned.