A US soldier was killed in an attack south of Baghdad, a statement by said on Thursday. The soldier was killed south of Baghdad during an attack launched at that area Wednesday night, the statement added.
Elsewhere, Iraqi police mistook a group of Iraqi soldiers for resistance fighetrs Thursday and opened fire, sparking a 10-minute gunbattle that killed five in the northern town of Rabia.
The troops in Rabia, west of the larger city of Mosul, were dressed in civilian clothing and were carrying guns, according to the region's police chief, Ahmed Mohammed Khalaf. According to The AP, three soldiers and two police were killed and another eight wounded.
Meanwhile, Iraqi forces located two beheaded bodies believed to be of Iraqi soldiers on the main road between Baghdad and Abu Ghreib Thursday. The bodies which where dressed in Iraqi army uniforms were transferred to a hospital, Captain Hassan Abdelkareem in the Iraqi army said without revealing the name of the hospital. The heads were placed in plastic bags next to the bodies, he added, according to Kuna.
In Baghdad, gunmen opened fire on a two-ton army truck transporting Iraqi soldiers in an eastern neighborhood. The truck overturned, injuring 12 troop members, police Maj. Mousa Hussein said.
Two separate explosives planted in the streets of the northern city of Mosul detonated near U.S. patrols, according to witnesses, but there were no casualties.
