U.S. Troops work with Iraqi troops to rescue Sunni hostages.

BAGHDAD, IRAQ - U.S. and Iraqi forces Thursday rescued seven Sunni Arab men seized by suspected Shiite militiamen near Baghdad, part of a campaign to suppress sectarian death squads responsible for hundreds of deaths this year.

The kidnapping was the latest in a wave that is plaguing the country. Many of the abductions are part of the sectarian warfare plaguing the Iraqi capital, home to large communities of Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.

Iraqi police said the trouble started when dozens of gunmen, some of them wearing military uniforms, raided two Sunni villages 25 miles northeast of Baghdad and abducted 10 young men.

Village leaders and clerics alerted police and U.S. soldiers, who rushed to the scene, clashed with the gunmen and rescued seven of the hostages, police said. Three others were missing and presumed taken away by gunmen, police said.

U.S. troops killed at least one kidnapper and wounded another, said Lt. Col. Thomas Fisher, commander of the 1st Battalion, 68th Armor. Some of the hostages had been beaten.

More than 30 people were taken into custody, Iraqi police said. Some gunmen told police they belong to the militia loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

I heard a blurb about this, but little else. I only found one story on the internet about it. Perhaps I’m not looking hard enough.

I take that back, I found 2 stories. One was on a blog that headlined with ‘US soldiers injure a child in raid’. Some people really hate their own country with that kind of headline.

From Thursday:

… Thursday, insurgents attacked U.S. Marines from an abandoned hotel in Haqlaniyah, 140 miles northwest of Baghdad, the U.S. military said. The Marines responded with small arms fire, a shoulder-fired rocket and an airstrike on the hotel. There were no U.S. casualties but one child suffered minor injuries, the military said.

In other violence Thursday, according to police:

_At least 14 people were killed in Baghdad, including five municipal street cleaners in an explosion.

_A Shiite professor, Widad al-Shimri, and her 7-year-old daughter were slain as they drove through Baqouba.

_A professor of Islamic law, Dr. Khalaf al-Jumaili, was shot dead after assailants stopped his car in Fallujah.

_One policeman was killed when gunmen fired on a police station in Kirkuk.

_Police killed a man who tried to plant a bomb under the car of Baqouba’s mayor.

Most of us are behind you boys.

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