U.S., Iraqi forces raid Shiite militia stronghold in Baghdad; gunbattle leaves 3 dead

(AP) Iraqi and U.S. forces raided a Shiite militia stronghold of Baghdad Monday, triggering a gunbattle that left three people dead.

Elsewhere, gunmen traveling in two cars sprayed a barbershop in Baghdad with gunfire, killing five people, while two policemen were killed in the northern city of Mosul in a similar drive-by shooting, police said.

A roadside bombing southwest of Baghdad killed three U.S. soldiers late Sunday, the U.S. military said. No further details were released. Ten people died in a suicide bombing at a funeral in Saddam Hussein's hometown.

In Baghdad, sounds of heavy gunfire and explosions rattled the Sadr City district starting about 1 a.m. Monday and lasted for more than an hour. Iraqi government television and aides to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said U.S. aircraft were attacking buildings in the area.

"Several aerial and ground raids began in central Sadr City," al-Sadr aide Jaleel al-Nouri said by telephone as detonations could be heard in the background. "We can see several houses on fire."

Col. Hassan Chaloub, police chief of Sadr City, said three people were killed and 12 injured, including five children. He said three cars and three houses were destroyed.

The U.S. military said in a statement the fighting started when Iraqi and U.S. forces raided the area to catch extremists suspected of running torture cells. The forces took fire as soon as they arrived and one U.S. soldier was injured, statement said.

The U.S. military recently reinforced its troop strength in the city to try to reclaim the streets from militias _ which include al-Sadr's Mahdi Army.

"There's gunfire from all sides," Kadhim al-Mohammedawi, a civil servant who lives in Sadr City, said by telephone. "We can hear women and children screaming."

The district became quiet after more than an hour, except for the sounds of emergency vehicles racing through the streets. The fighting stopped when Mahdi Army members received calls on their mobile phones, asking them not to confront U.S. troops, said Col. Hassan Chaloub, police chief of Sadr City. It was not clear who made the calls.

He said three people including a woman and a 3-year-old girl were killed and 12 were injured, including five children and two women. He said three cars and three houses were destroyed in fire.

The operation occurred less than two days after U.S. reinforcements arrived in Baghdad from Mosul to help forces stationed here stop the growing sectarian violence between Shiite and Sunni extremists in the capital.

The barbershop killings occurred a little after noon in the eastern New Baghdad neighborhood, said police Lt. Ali Abbas. The gunmen, driving past the shop in two sedans, opened fire, killing four customers and the owner, he said.

In Mosul, gunmen opened fire on a taxi Monday, killing two policemen inside, said police Brig. Saeed al-Jubouri. He said two other policemen in the taxi were injured.

The attack on the mourners occurred Sunday evening in Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad. The bomber mingled among the crowd in a funeral hall and detonated an explosive belt, police said.

Police Capt. Laith Hamid, who gave the casualty figure, said the mourners were attending services for the father of a local council member, who was killed in the attack.

The bombing was the latest in a series of attacks across northern Iraq in recent days that have tested the capabilities of Iraq's U.S.-trained security forces.

On Sunday, Iraqi authorities in Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, lifted a partial curfew that was imposed two days earlier in the eastern part of the city after police repulsed a series of insurgent attacks in which a police colonel was killed.

The Defense Ministry said security forces had arrested 62 people in a crackdown across northern Iraq after the street battles.

In other violence Monday, two bombs exploded on Palestine Street, a major shopping area of Baghdad, injuring 10 people, including a senior police officer. Two bodies, handcuffed and shot in the head, were also found in western Baghdad, said police Capt. Jamil Hussein.

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Associated Press correspondents Sinan Salaheddin, Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Qais al-Bashir in Baghdad contributed to this report.