By DPA
Baghdad : The US military in Iraq killed nine suspected members of the Al Qaeda terrorist network, while 24 people were detained, US statements and reports said Friday.
US forces killed four suspects Thursday during an operation targeting Al Qaeda in Muqdadiyah city, some 100 km northeast of Iraq’s capital Baghdad, according to a US military statement.
In similar operations in the northern city of Mosul and near Lake Hamrin, five terrorist suspects were killed and 17 others were arrested.
Late Thursday, the Iraqi authorities detained seven members of the Shia Sadrist movement in the southern city of Karbala during Ashura celebrations, the Iraqi News agency Voices of Iraq (VOI) said Friday.
The Shias were celebrating Friday Ashura, a religious festival in which they undertake a pilgrimage to a shrine held to be the tomb of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Muslim prophet Mohammed, who was killed in the Battle of Karbala in 680 AD.