6 suspects detained in Sadr City (Iraq) raid

Iraqi and U.S. forces detained six suspects in a raid and an airstrike Saturday on the Shiite slum of Sadr City that left one fighter dead and another wounded, the U.S. military said.

The raid was aimed at capturing the leader of an illegally armed group of more than 100 people suspected in kidnappings, killings, illegal checkpoints, rocket attacks and bombings against security forces and civilians in northeastern Baghdad, according to a statement.

The military did not identify the target further or say if the militant leader was among those detained. Sadr City is a stronghold of the Mahdi Army, the Shiite militia that is loyal to anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and blamed in much of the sectarian violence in the capital.

Special Iraqi army forces, with coalition advisers, detained six suspects in the operation and coalition aircraft struck after fighting erupted on the ground, the military said.

It said no civilians or Iraqi or coalition forces suffered casualties and damage was minimal.

AP Television News footage showed three burned-out cars and a house with blackened walls and shattered windows.

“At 2 a.m. we were sleeping when we heard a big explosion and our house caught fire,” witness Jassim Abid Fazaa told APTN. “We fled outside the house to see shrapnel pieces everywhere. There was a warplane dropping bombs on the area.”