Pre-dawn clashes, air strike rock Baghdad

[Barrett808]

Source: AFP

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Baghdad awoke Thursday to the familiar sounds of heavy fighting as US planes bombarded a suspected weapons smuggling cell in the east of the Iraqi capital and clashes were heard in the city centre.

The US military said it had killed "three armed terrorists" when troops called in an air strike to put an end to a gunbattle with a gang that had allegedly smuggled deadly armour-piercing bombs into Iraq from Iran.

"During the course of the morning's operations, coalition forces targeted a concentration of buildings associated with the terrorist network, detaining four suspected terrorists during the raids," a US statement said.

"Three Iraqi civilians were also injured during the operation."

The bombed hideout of the alleged "secret cell terrorist network" was in Sadr City, a sprawling eastern suburb of Baghdad known as a stronghold of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia.

"These raids are taking place almost every night these days. We can hardly sleep for the buzz of the planes and the shooting," said resident Karim Al-Nuri as he surveyed the damage at the site of the bombing.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070510/wl_mideast_afp/iraqunrest

[MADem]

1. Thou shalt not mortar the Green Zone whilst Cheney is present, else

retribution will swiftly follow.