3 U. S. soldiers, 21 Iraqis killed in separate attacks in Iraq

BAGHDAD — Shiite militiamen loyal to radical cleric Muqtada alSadr clashed Thursday with Sunni militants in + ghting that killed at least 15 people, and three American soldiers died in separate attacks the day before, of + cials said.

Six Iraqis died and 12 wounded in other attacks.

The Shiite- Sunni + ghting occurred after al- Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia raided a house in Nahrawan, were 15 miles southeast of Baghdad, to free a fellow militiaman kidnapped by Sunni militants, said Amer alHusseini, an aide to al- Sadr.

The Mahdi Army freed the hostage and captured two militants during the raid, but it was ambushed on itsway out of Nahrawan, al- Husseini said.

Police Maj. Falah al- Mohammadawi said the 15 deaths included 14 Mahdi Army members and a policeman. He said 14 people were wounded — two policemen and the rest either militia members or civilians. No insurgent were reported.

The incident underscores tensions among hard- line elements in Iraq’s rival religious and ethnic communities at a time when the United States is struggling to promote a political process seen as key to calming the insurgency so U.S. and other foreign troops can go home.

As part of the political process, Iraqi parties are trying to put together coalitions to contest the Dec. 15 parliamentary election following casualties rati + cation of the constitution in a referendum Oct. 15.

Three Sunni Arab groups — the General Conference for the People of Iraq, the Iraqi Islamic Party and the Iraqi National Dialogue — joined forces to + eld candidates in the election, which was made possible by the new constitution.

But an in D uential group of hardline Sunni Arab clerics, the Association of Muslim Scholars, denounced the constitution and said it will not join the political process.

Those contradictory statements signaled confusion within the minority Sunni Arab community, which forms the core of the insurgency, on how to go forward after it failed to block rati + cation in the referendum.

As politics intensi + ed, the + ghting continued.

Two U. S. Army soldiers were killed Wednesday when their convoy hit a roadside bomb in eastern Baghdad, the military said.

That same day, a roadside bomb and small- arms + re struck an Army patrol 37 miles north of Baghdad, killing one American soldier and wounding four, the military said.

In Baghdad on Thursday, a suicide attacker rammed his car into a U.S. military convoy in Karradah, a commercial and residential district, killing one Iraqi passerby and wounding nine others, Capt. Mohammed Abdul Ghani said.

Also in Baghdad, a drive-by shooting by insurgents killed police Lt. Colonel Mahdi Hussein, and a similar attack killed a pedestrian, police 1st Lt. Mohammed Khayoon said.