U.S. troops raid suspected insurgent group near Iraq's border with Syria

BAGHDAD, Iraq — U.S. troops battled arms smugglers and fighters near the Iraqi town of Qaim along the Syrian border Tuesday, killing an unknown number of foreign insurgents, the U.S. military said. The local hospital reported at least nine people killed in clashes in the same area.

The raid occurred a day after insurgents tried unsuccessfully to ram two cars and a fire truck loaded with explosives into a Marine outpost in Qaim, but military officials said the attack was not related to the raid.

Insurgents opened fire when the U.S. troops began their raid on the smuggling ring, and several militants, including at least one suicide bomber, were killed, the U.S. military said in a statement. No Americans were injured, it said.

Residents reported violent clashes before dawn Tuesday in and around Qaim, although it was unclear if the violence was related to the raid.

Hamid al-Alousi, director of Qaim hospital, said his facility had received nine corpses and nearly two dozen wounded in the violence. Residents of a small village just north of Qaim said more than a dozen more people were buried in the area and not taken to the hospital. Residents and hospital officials said the victims appeared to be civilians.

It was impossible to verify the claims.

Without providing details, the terrorist group al-Qaida in Iraq, led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for the Qaim clashes. The claim, posted on the Internet, could not be verified.

Many residents stayed in on Tuesday and some families fled their homes in two southwestern neighborhoods and moved to other parts of the town fearing renewed clashes.

Masked gunmen were seen taking up positions in Qaim on Tuesday, residents said.

U.S. military officials said that two other raids in the area over the last week had resulted in the capture of smugglers who "confessed to bringing weapons, foreign fighters and money for terrorists across the Syrian border into Iraq."

The Iraqi government also claimed to have captured an insurgent and former member of Saddam Hussein's regime, Fadhil Ibrahim Mahmud al-Mashadani, at a farm northeast of Baghdad on Tuesday. It said al-Mashadani was the leader of the military bureau in Baghdad under Saddam and it accused him of being "among the main facilitators of many terrorist attacks in Iraq."

"Al-Mashadani is believed to be personally responsible for coordinating and funding attacks against the Iraqi people," the statement said.