14 Iraqis die in clashes in west Baghdad area

Iraqi and U.S. special forces battled alleged Shiite militia members early Thursday, leaving 14 Iraqis dead, nine injured and several houses in ruins, witnesses and U.S. military officials said.

North of the capital, thousands of joint forces began a sweep of suspected Sunni insurgent hide-outs, and in the western province of Anbar, a U.S. presidential hopeful gave Iraqi leaders a pointed lesson in American history.

The fighting in Baghdad began before dawn, U.S. military officials said, when more than a dozen gunmen hiding on rooftops opened fire on soldiers in the Washash neighborhood on the city’s west side. U.S. officials said the soldiers were seeking a group of Shiite Muslim extremists believed to be setting up roadblocks to extort money from residents and kill Sunnis.

The western side of the capital has increasingly come under the influence of radical anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada Sadr, whose militia has been accused of sectarian killings. Last week the Shiite cleric announced that his militia, the Mahdi Army, would halt hostilities for six months, but later his aides appeared to place conditions on the cease-fire. Alleged rogue elements have continued attacks on soldiers and police.

A spokesman for Sadr said that none of the Iraqi casualties were members of the Mahdi Army. “The American airstrike was just to terrify innocent people,” said Sheik Salah Ubaidi.

Witnesses said families seeking relief from the heat were sleeping on rooftops when the shooting began sometime after 2 a.m.

“We were faced with two difficult choices,” said a 35-year-old man who was on his roof with his children. “If we go downstairs, we get killed. If we stay on the roof, we get killed as well. I finally went downstairs with my children because there was some protection at least.”

Iraqi and U.S. soldiers waged a gun battle and called in aerial support in a fight that seemed to stretch nearly an hour, he said.

“We heard houses around us being bombed,” said the man, who said he was afraid to give his name. “It was one of the worst days of my life, and I can’t find any logical reason for what happened.”

No soldiers were injured, U.S. military officials said, and two buildings were destroyed. Witnesses said the destruction was more widespread.

Baghdad police said a dozen bodies were found in various parts of the city, apparent victims of death squads. Some of the victims appeared to have been tortured.

In the northern city of Kirkuk, three people were killed and four injured in a drive-by shooting as they left a mosque after evening prayers.

U.S. military officials reported Thursday that six Iraqi insurgents were killed and an additional 25 suspects were arrested in Tarmiya, 25 miles north of Baghdad. The men were killed after reportedly drawing their weapons, the military said.

The violence occurred near the site of an improvised prison run by militants that soldiers discovered Sunday. Nine insurgents were held there, said Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner, allegedly for misbehaving. “The building had two cells on the top floor where prisoners were bound with chains,” he said.

More than 26,000 Iraqi and U.S. soldiers also stepped up operations against insurgents, including members of Al Qaeda of Iraq, farther north in Salahuddin and Diyala provinces, U.S. military officials said.

Soldiers late Wednesday launched an extension of an earlier campaign to chase Sunni fighters who fled northward from Baghdad after the U.S. military buildup and crackdown began in February. An additional 28,500 troops have been deployed, bringing the total U.S. force to about 164,000 troops.

“Our main goal . . . is to continue to pursue and apply constant pressure to the terrorist cells,” said Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, commander of the operation.

Meanwhile, in Anbar province, where President Bush on Monday heralded what he said could be achieved with the military buildup, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware had a different message Thursday.

The visiting Democratic presidential hopeful said he doubted that Iraq’s political leaders were capable of reconciling the religious and ethnic divisions that are pulling the country apart.

Looking to next week’s congressional hearings on Iraq, Biden warned a group of Sunni sheiks and top government leaders of the outcome if they failed to reconcile relations among Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis: “In America, we’re waiting to see how extensive that cooperation will be. If it is extensive, you can count on America to stay. If it is not, we can say goodbye now.”

Biden has supported troop reductions in Iraq and advocated a partition of the country. U.S. military and political leaders are expected to highlight Anbar in their report to Congress assessing the results of the troop buildup.

Acknowledging the difficulty of building a democracy from scratch, Biden told Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki and his two vice presidents that it took America’s founding fathers 13 years to agree on a final draft of the Constitution.

“Maybe you’ll do better than we did,” said Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “But, respectfully, I doubt it.”

sam.enriquez@latimes.com

Times staff writers Wail Alhafith, Raheem Salman and Saif Rasheed in Baghdad and Tina Susman in Anbar contributed to this report.