Fierce fighting shuts down city of Baqouba

updated 6:47 p.m. ET Nov. 29, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Fierce fighting Wednesday between coalition forces and insurgents shut down the Iraqi city of Baqouba, killing scores of militants and civilians. Dozens of bullet-riddled bodies were found around Baghdad.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki arrived in Jordan for meetings with President Bush aimed at halting the escalating violence, but the session was put off until Thursday.

Suspected insurgents attacked the police headquarters in downtown Baqouba, sparking a clash with police that left five of the attackers dead, police said on condition of anonymity, as they regularly do to protect themselves.

Coalition forces backed by U.S. aircraft also killed eight al-Qaida in Iraq insurgents during a raid near the city that also left two Iraqi women dead, the U.S. military said.

The early morning attack was aimed at detaining Iraqis who were running a known cell of insurgents, the U.S. command said. The soldiers called in air support after coming under heavy fire from rifles and machine guns, the command said.

In Baqouba, capital of Diyala province about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, the university, public schools and many stores remained closed, and the city’s streets were mostly empty, except for a few people who dashed out to small fruit or vegetable stalls to stock up on food.

In a city with a crumbling infrastructure, few residents had electricity and most only received limited water supplies. Many Shiites and Sunnis have fled neighborhoods where they live in a minority, seeking refuge with relatives in nearby provinces or, if they have the money, in neighboring Jordan and Syria.

Recent surge in violence
Widespread fighting has raged in the area for several days. On Tuesday, Diyala police said they found 11 bullet-riddled bodies around Baqouba. Over the weekend, fighting between Iraqi security forces and Sunni Arab insurgents left more than 50 militants dead and dozens wounded.

In all, 15 civilians and 13 insurgents were killed in violence around Iraq on Wednesday, police and U.S. officials said. The mangled bodies of nine civilians who had been kidnapped and tortured also were found, police said.

A total of 52 bullet-riddled bodies, some of them bound and blindfolded and bearing signs of torture, were found in various locations around Baghdad, according to officials of the Interior Ministry who spoke on condition of anonymity because of security measures.

The day’s casualties also included four Iraqis who were killed and 35 wounded by four mortar attacks, three roadside bombs and a car bomb in Baghdad, police said.

In addition, the U.S. military announced the deaths of two more American soldiers.

A U.S. Army soldier died Wednesday from wounds suffered in fighting in Anbar province, the large region of desert and isolated towns west of Baghdad, the command said. A roadside bomb the day before killed another Army soldier and wounded another in Salahuddin province.

That raised to at least 2,883 the number of U.S. service members who have died since the Iraq war began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

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