IRAQ Latest developments

Some events and scattered violence across Iraq on Wednesday:

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki disputed Blackwater USA’s version of a weekend shooting that left at least 11 people dead, saying he cannot tolerate “the killing of our citizens in cold blood.” He suggested that the U.S. Embassy should find another company to protect its diplomats.

A U.S. soldier was killed during combat operations in the west of the Iraqi capital and another one died of nonbattle-related causes, the military said.

The Bush administration, acknowledging a moral obligation, intends to sharply increase the number of Iraqi refugees it will admit to the United States next year, a senior State Department official said.

Iraqi troops killed 14 militants in clashes in the northern city of Mosul, following a failed suicide car bomb attack on an Iraqi army base in the city’s eastern sector, Brig. Ahmed Zebari said.

A roadside bomb in Mosul also killed one Iraqi soldier and wounded three.

A suicide bomber detonated an explosives belt near a U.S. Army checkpoint outside Muqdadiyah, about 60 miles north of Baghdad, killing one civilian and wounding five others, including three women, police said.

U.S troops captured 11 suspected al-Qaida in Iraq insurgents, five of whom were on a wanted list, during various operations in the Tigris River valley in the country’s north, the military said.

Two suspects, captured in the Hamrin Mountains southeast of Kirkuk, were believed to be tied to al-Qaida in Iraq’s smuggling operations with Iran and Pakistan. A third suspect, seized near the northern city of Mosul, was said to be an adviser and recruiter for the terror network.

In a pre-dawn raid in Balad Ruz, 45 miles northeast of Baghdad, U.S. troops killed one Iraqi insurgent who the military said was linked to Iran’s paramilitary Quds Force.

Source: Associated Press