BAGHDAD, Iraq — U.S. and Iraqi troops repelled a series of coordinated insurgent attacks in southern Baghdad, killing six rebels and capturing 12, the U.S. military said Saturday. There were no U.S. casualties.
The fighting began about 8 p.m. Friday when insurgents attacked an Iraqi army position with mortar rounds and small-arms fire, the command said. U.S. attack helicopters engaged the insurgents with rockets and gunfire.
At nearly the same time, a homicide attacker drove a truck loaded with explosives into a nearby Iraqi army checkpoint, killing an Iraqi soldier.
A suicide car bomber tried to attack another Iraqi position in the area, but a U.S. tank fired and hit the car, killing the driver and causing the car bomb to explode prematurely, the U.S. command said. Iraqi police said three bystanders were wounded.
Minutes later, insurgents at a fourth location fired two rocket-propelled grenades and a mortar round at another Iraqi army post in south Baghdad (search). None of the rounds caused any damage, the U.S. statement said.
Over the next two hours, insurgents tried to regroup for further attacks on the two Iraqi army posts but were driven off by U.S. and Iraqi fire, the statement added.
"The enemy came to fight us with no success," said Maj. Listen Edge (search) of Kennesaw, Ga., an operations officer with the 48th Brigade Combat Team.
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