15 Insurgents Slain in Iraq Clash; Gunmen Kill Hussein-Era Official

U.S. and Iraqi troops backed by heavy artillery and helicopters killed 15 insurgents in fighting Sunday that began in palm groves and ended in the dusty streets of a city north of Baghdad as violence surged throughout the country.

Also Sunday, gunmen assassinated a Saddam Hussein-era government official near Baghdad and killed five people in a series of attacks in the northern city of Kirkuk.

A raid against insurgents in Buhriz, about 35 miles north of Baghdad, turned into the five-hour battle between militants and U.S. and Iraqi forces that killed 15 insurgents.

U.S. military spokesman Maj. Neal O’Brien said the clash was ignited when American and Iraqi National Guard troops conducted a sweep of palm groves believed to be a staging area for anti-coalition attacks.

Insurgents using small arms attacked the Iraqi forces, who chased the attackers into the town’s southern neighborhoods, the U.S. military said.

Guerrillas later fired mortars indiscriminately, the military said, and the U.S. responded with an artillery barrage.

Qayser Hameed, an emergency worker at nearby Baqubah General Hospital, said two dead Iraqis -- a police officer and a civilian -- and six injured civilians had been brought there. It was unclear whether the two killed were in addition to those reported by the military.

In Baghdad’s Dora suburb, gunmen killed Khaled Dawoud, the head of Nahiya district in southern Iraq during Hussein’s rule, Police Lt. Mustafa Abdullah Dulaimi said.

Dawoud’s son was also killed, he said.

Meanwhile, an important Sunni Muslim group Sunday condemned the separate abductions of an Egyptian diplomat and seven foreign truck drivers last week.

“If a hostage is unrelated to occupation forces, their abductors should free them if they are to respect Islamic religious principles,” said Mohammed Bashar Faidi, spokesman for the Board of Clergy and Scholars, an Iraqi Sunni group with close ties to insurgents.

Militants said they had snatched Mohammed Mamdouh Helmi Qutb, the third-ranking diplomat at the Egyptian mission in Iraq, to deter Egypt from sending security assistance to Iraq’s interim government.

The Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport Co., which employed the drivers, said in a statement that it was negotiating with the kidnappers.

“There are promises and assurances [the hostages will be freed], especially after the kidnappers became certain that we have no presence in Iraq and we were just conducting transportation for the interest of some Iraqis,” the statement said.

The group has demanded that the company pay compensation to families of the dead in Fallouja and that Iraqi prisoners in U.S. and Kuwaiti jails be released.