Heavy fighting took place in western Baghdad on Saturday, with gunmen battling U.S. and Iraqi troops, while in northern Iraq, troops discovered the bodies of nine Iraqi soldiers killed execution-style.
U.S. military officials said American troops discovered the dead Iraqi soldiers in Mosul. They had all been shot in the back of the head, and one report said seven of them had been decapitated.
In Baghdad, it was a particularly violent day. Insurgents attacked a police station, killing at least three policemen, and a roadside bomb killed three Iraqi national guardsmen. An American soldier was also killed and nine others wounded when their patrol was attacked. And at least one civilian was killed when a car exploded.
Meanwhile, to the west, in Ramadi, hospital officials say at least five Iraqis were killed and several wounded in clashes between U.S. forces and insurgents.