11 Shia fighters killed in Iraq by US army

BAGHDAD (AFP) - US forces on Thursday killed 11 Shia fighters allegedly backed by Iranian Republican Guard units and arrested two suspected militants involved in the abduction of three American soldiers.
The militants were killed in an early morning raid in the town of Kut south of Baghdad, the military told AFP.
“I can confirm that coalition forces killed an estimated 11 terrorists during operations targeting special groups criminal networks early Thursday in Al-Kut,” US military spokesman Lieutenant Patrick Evans said.
The US military refers to Shiite extremists who have broken away from the main Mahdi Army militia of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr as “special groups.”
It says the groups wage acts of “terrorism” in Iraq with the financial and military support of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards units, though Tehran denies backing them.
Iraqi security officials said the raid took place in Kut’s western neighbourhood of Al-Jihad, which is near Camp Delta, an American military base that is a regular target of militia attacks.
The Iraq officials said the dead included two civilians.
The US military said the raid targeted a militant reportedly responsible for attacking its troops.
It said that during the raid the troops were attacked by “direct enemy fire” from assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. The soldiers returned fire and called in air support, leaving around 11 militants dead.
“We commend all those who honour Al-Sayyid Moqtada al-Sadr’s ceasefire pledge,” US military spokesman Major Winfield Danielson said in a separate statement giving details of the operation. “Significant progress has been made in the fight for a secure and stable Iraq, but dangerous criminal elements still exist.”
In late August, Sadr ordered a six-month freeze on the activities of the Mahdi Army militia, which had fought against US forces since the March 2003 invasion of Iraq. The US military accuses “rogue” elements of breaking away from the militia to form special groups that continue attacking its troops despite Sadr’s call.
On Thursday the American military also said it had captured two Al-Qaeda militants suspected of involvement in the May kidnapping of three US soldiers.
Troops captured the pair in the city of Ramadi in the western Sunni province of Anbar on Monday and Tuesday after intelligence reports linked them to the abduction of the soldiers following an ambush, a military statement said.
The three-Private Byron Fouty, Specialist Alex Jiminez and Private First Class Joseph Anzack-were seized on May 12 south of Baghdad near the town of Mahmudiyah.
An Al-Qaeda front group later claimed in a video that it had killed them. Anzack’s body was found floating in the Euphrates River a few days later, but American forces are still searching the other two.
The three were snatched during an insurgent ambush on a US unit manning an observation post near Mahmudiyah. Four US soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter were killed in the attack.
One of the two suspects captured this week was believed to have used his home to hide the abducted soldiers, the statement said.