US forces killed eight suspected insurgents and captured 41 others in raids across Iraq on Friday, the military said. Seven suspects were killed after they fired on American troops entering a building near Mahmoudiyah, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) south of Baghdad, the US military said in a statement. Another 15 men were detained. In two more raids in the same city, US forces detained eight suspects and destroyed seven tanks of chlorine, the statement said. Chlorine has been used in car bombs in recent months by Sunni insurgents, mostly in Iraq's western Anbar province.
In Baghdad, one suspect was killed when US troops entered a building to disrupt a car bomb-making cell, the military said. Six suspects were detained in the raid, and troops uncovered explosives, it said. The statement added that two more suspects were also captured in another raid in Baghdad.