Seven suspected insurgents were killed in clashes with U.S. forces in a province of Iraq, the U.S. military said on Monday. Iraqi police in the area said Iraqi forces allied with the Americans were involved and that clashes continued throughout Sunday in the town of Dhuluiya, 70 km (45 miles) north of Baghdad. They put the death toll of the gunmen at nine, Reuters reported. Lieutenant Colonel Mohammed Jassim, a police official in Dhuluiya, said the fighting began early on Sunday and resulted in the arrest of 17 suspected militants, four of them non-Iraqi Arabs. Four suspected insurgents were wounded. "Coalition forces killed seven armed terrorists and detained one suspect during an early morning operation to capture a suicide bombing cell hiding in a palm grove near Balad," said U.S. press officer Lieutenant John Brimley. "One suspected terrorist was detained and confirmed that the remaining terrorists were armed with five suicide vests," he said.
