Pat Dollard | Young Americans

U.S. troops killed eight suspected insurgents and captured 26, including a Shiite “Special Groups” militia leader, in two days of raids across Iraq, the U.S. military said Friday.

The eight were killed Thursday and Friday in separate raids targeting al-Qaida in Iraq across the country’s central and northern regions, the military said. At least 22 others were detained in the operations, it said.

The militia leader was detained along with three other suspects late Thursday in the Mashru area south of Baghdad, a U.S. statement said.

The military said the man was believed to be a “special groups” leader—language it uses to describe Shiite Muslim militias allegedly backed by Iran. The U.S. says the groups have broken ranks with Muqtada al- Sadr’s Mahdi Army. The radical cleric in August called a six-month cease-fire, which is due to expire later this month.

The U.S. has been careful not to accuse al-Sadr himself of any role in ongoing attacks, and instead blame rogue militiamen violating his cease-fire order. Nevertheless, U.S. and Iraqi officials have been cracking down on al-Sadr’s followers, especially in Shiite holy cities south of Baghdad.

The military identified the main suspect in Thursday’s raid as “a deputy for special groups criminal elements in Wasit province,” and a close “associate of several senior-level criminal element leaders involved in attacks” on U.S. and Iraqi forces. He and three others were captured without incident, the military said.

The arrests came hours after al-Sadr’s office issued a statement warning Mahdi Army fighters to stick with his cease-fire order, after U.S. and Iraqi raids earlier Thursday in Baghdad’s Sadr City—the main Shiite district and Mahdi Army bastion.

Al-Sadr has threatened not to extend the cease-fire unless the government purges rival Shiite militiamen he alleges have infiltrated the security forces and are targeting his followers.

Fifteen suspected militants were detained in Thursday’s sweeps through Sadr City, and one person was killed. The U.S. similarly said it was targeting “criminal elements” responsible for attacks with mortars and powerful roadside bombs that the Pentagon links to Iranian aid.

In a separate statement issued Friday, the military said rogue militiamen continue to launch “hit and run attacks” on U.S. and Iraqi forces from Sadr City.

There were at least six attacks on American troops in two sections of Sadr City during the first three days of February, the military said. And U.S. soldiers conducting mounted patrols near the Shiite neighborhood came under fire twice last weekend, it said.

“The soldiers were not able to positively identify the shooters in either case, and consequently did not return fire in order to avoid harming Iraqi civilians,” it said.

(AP)