By DPA
Baghdad : Eight guerrillas were killed Monday by Iraqi and US forces in two separate operations in Hillah city suburbs, some 100 km south of the capital city, an Iraqi police source said.
The US force killed four militants as they were planting explosive charges in Iskandariya city, the source added.
Iraqi army forces killed another four militants when they were staging a fake checkpoint in Jabal area, and set free two hostages, one of whom was a policeman, the source noted.
Meanwhile, US forces shot dead an Iraqi civilian in a security operation targeting Al Qaeda terrorist network in Balad Ruz in southern Diyala province, Iraqi security and medical sources said Monday.
Thirteen Al Qaeda suspects were detained in the operation. Another civilian was killed by militants also in Balad Ruz, 180 km south of Baghdad, the sources added.
Meanwhile, three unidentified dead bodies were found in Hadid village, south of Baquba city, the capital of Diyala province, sources said.
Baquba is 60 km north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.
Also in Diyala province, a mass grave with the bodies of 20 murdered students was found in the Iraqi province of Diyala, an Iraqi security spokesman reported Monday.
According to independent Voices of Iraq news agency, the bodies were of young men taken by extremists from a main street, and killed and buried in the area of al-Abara near Baquba.
Diyala province has become a centre of Sunni extremism primarily after a US-led military push to remove al-Qaeda extremists from western province of Anbar.
The city of Muqdadiya is one of the most dangerous areas in the province, where on Sunday seven people were found murdered.
Iraqi and US soldiers claimed to have captured five suspected Al Qaeda terrorists on the same day.