By Xinhua
Baghdad : US forces have killed 25 suspected insurgents and detained 21 in operations north of Baghdad targeting a senior Al Qaeda leader, the US military said Thursday.
The operation took place late Tuesday and early Wednesday to the west of Tarmiyah area in north of the capital, a military statement said.
The troops called in aircraft to attack armed men observed acting with “hostile intent”, killing an armed man and detaining two suspects, the statement said.
While moving to another location, the troops came under fire and again called in aircraft support, killing 24 suspects and wounding three, it said.
The US ground forces also detained 16 suspects in the two locations.
The troops found a large cache of weapons that “included numerous anti-aircraft machine guns, surface-to-surface missiles, rifles, pistols, grenades, mortar rounds and artillery shells”, the statement said.