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19 Iraqi forces killed in shootouts with militants

Insurgents killed 19 Iraqi security forces in clashes around Baqouba, while US and Iraqi forces intensified an offensive in a rebel-infested city that the Americans subdued last year -- only to have the Iraqis lose control.

Eight policemen died in a pair of shootouts on Saturday in Baqouba, 56km northeast of Baghdad, officials said. Six policemen and two soldiers were killed in another gunbattle in Buhriz, a suburb of the Baqouba, officials said.

Three Iraqi soldiers also died on Saturday when their convoy was attacked by gunmen near Adhaim, 48km north of Baqouba, police said.

To the north, fighting raged for a second day on Saturday in the outskirts of Tal Afar, an ethnically mixed insurgent stronghold.

US and Iraqi officials urged civilians to leave affected areas of the city, 418km northwest of Baghdad, a sign that the Americans were preparing a major assault. US forces crushed insurgents in Tal Afar last fall, leaving only about 500 US soldiers behind and handing over control to the Iraqis.

But Iraqi authorities lost control of the city, and insurgent ranks swelled. That forced the US command to shift the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment from the Baghdad area to Tal Afar to restore order.

Hospital officials said they were unsure of casualties because it was too dangerous for ambulances to reach the area. Officials said they hoped to get ambulances into the area yesterday.

Elsewhere, four civilians were killed and 11 wounded when four mortar shells fired at a US installation missed the target and exploded in a mixed residential and commercial area of Samarra, the US military and Iraqi police said.

The blasts shattered shops and left pools of blood on the dusty streets of the city, 96km north of Baghdad. Doctors and nurses at the local hospital struggled to bandage the wounded, some of them with horrific shrapnel wounds. Doctors hovered over one man with bone protruding from his left leg.

A 10-year-old boy lay naked on a bed, his head, arm and leg swathed in bandages. Rumors spread that the Americans fired the rounds, but US and Iraqi officials insisted they did not.

"We were at work and were hit by a mortar round while trying to earn bread for our children," shouted one man who would not give his name. "It was a workshop for God's sake. Where is the government? Where is the Cabinet? How long will the Americans continue to do this? No religion accepts these acts, not even the Christians."

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