Factional fighting leaves 15 dead in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Sunni Arab militants killed 14 Shiite militiamen and a policeman Thursday in a clash southeast of Baghdad – another sign of rising tensions among Iraq’s rival ethnic and religious communities. The U.S. military reported three more American soldiers died in combat.

The Shiite-Sunni fighting occurred after police and militiamen loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr raided a house in Nahrawan, 15 miles southeast of the capital, to free a militiaman taken hostage by Sunni militants, according to Amer al-Husseini, an aide to al-Sadr.

After freeing the hostage and capturing two militants, the Shiite militiamen were ambushed by the Sunnis on their way out of the religiously mixed town, al-Husseini said. Police said 14 others – 12 militiamen and two policemen – were wounded.

The incident underscores tensions among hard-line elements in Iraq’s rival religious and ethnic communities at a time when the United States is struggling to promote a political process seen as key to calming the insurgency so that U.S. and other foreign troops can go home.

Both Shiites and Sunnis have accused one another of kidnappings and assassinations, especially in religiously mixed Baghdad neighborhoods and farming communities south and east of the capital.

Sectarian violence has complicated efforts by the United States and its coalition partners to promote a political process, which received a boost this week with the announcement that voters had approved the new constitution in the Oct. 15 referendum, despite strong opposition from the minority Sunni Arab community. Ratification paves the way for parliamentary elections Dec. 15.

The U.S. command said two more Army soldiers were killed Wednesday when their convoy hit a roadside bomb in Baghdad. Another U.S. soldier died Wednesday in an ambush 37 miles north of Baghdad.