The US military has announced that five more American troops and an Iraqi interpreter have been killed in roadside blasts in Iraq.
The military says four soldiers and the interpreter were killed in blasts Thursday in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, and in al Anbar province. A fifth soldier was killed by a roadside bomb south of Baghdad Friday .
In other violence Friday, five Iraqi policemen were killed in a blast in Baghdad, while a car bomb blast near a Shi'ite mosque in Hillah killed at least one person.
Meanwhile, the US military says coalition forces detained 16 suspected terrorists during raids in the mainly Shi'ite Sadr City district. It said intelligence reports indicate the men were involved in smuggling armor-piercing bombs from Iran.
The military also displayed pictures of a cache of Iranian-made weapons that it said coalition forces discovered during earlier operations (in the Mahmudiyah region) south of Baghdad.
Separately, the military identified two more senior al-Qaida in Iraq leaders (Sabah Hilal al-Shihawi, a religious advisor of the insurgent group, and a foreign fighter, Abu Amar al-Masri) who were killed in an operation in Taji, north of Baghdad, on Tuesday
Thursday, the military identified one of five people killed in the raid as Muharib Abdul Latif al-Jubouri, the group's information minister. The military has not identified the remaining two.
Earlier, the Iraqi interior ministry said the top al-Qaida in Iraq leader, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, was among those killed. But the US military disputed the claim.
The Iraqi ministry claimed the fifth militant killed in the operation was Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the head of the al-Qaida-linked group, the Islamic State of Iraq.
But the umbrella group of insurgents says Baghdadi is alive.
The military says four soldiers and the interpreter were killed in blasts Thursday in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, and in al Anbar province. A fifth soldier was killed by a roadside bomb south of Baghdad Friday .
In other violence Friday, five Iraqi policemen were killed in a blast in Baghdad, while a car bomb blast near a Shi'ite mosque in Hillah killed at least one person.
Meanwhile, the US military says coalition forces detained 16 suspected terrorists during raids in the mainly Shi'ite Sadr City district. It said intelligence reports indicate the men were involved in smuggling armor-piercing bombs from Iran.
The military also displayed pictures of a cache of Iranian-made weapons that it said coalition forces discovered during earlier operations (in the Mahmudiyah region) south of Baghdad.
Separately, the military identified two more senior al-Qaida in Iraq leaders (Sabah Hilal al-Shihawi, a religious advisor of the insurgent group, and a foreign fighter, Abu Amar al-Masri) who were killed in an operation in Taji, north of Baghdad, on Tuesday
Thursday, the military identified one of five people killed in the raid as Muharib Abdul Latif al-Jubouri, the group's information minister. The military has not identified the remaining two.
Earlier, the Iraqi interior ministry said the top al-Qaida in Iraq leader, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, was among those killed. But the US military disputed the claim.
The Iraqi ministry claimed the fifth militant killed in the operation was Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the head of the al-Qaida-linked group, the Islamic State of Iraq.
But the umbrella group of insurgents says Baghdadi is alive.