US soldiers kill 12 Iraqi militants

16 December 2003
US soldiers in Iraq killed at least 11 militants on 15 December during an ambush on a military convoy in the town of Samarra, some 125 kilometres west of Baghdad. US troops managed to repel a 'complex ambush' in the centre of the city by militant supporters of the former Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein. The attackers used children leaving a nearby school as a means of cover, said a statement read by a US military spokeswoman. US forces suffered no casualties. 'The patrol was inundated by fire when, in a continuing co-ordinated effort, the patrol was attacked by former regime elements using rocket-propelled grenades coming from the west and mortar fire that emanated from the north,' the statement said.

In a separate incident near Fallujah, about 30 militants fired on a US convoy carrying a captured Iraqi weapons cache. 'The unit returned fire, killing one of the attackers,' a US military statement said.

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