24 US soldiers killed in weekend fighting in Iraq

BAGHDAD: Five US soldiers were killed in a gunbattle with militiamen wearing US and Iraqi military uniforms who stormed a security meeting in the southern shrine city of Karbala, the US military said Sunday.

On Saturday, the US military lost 19 troops in Iraq, including 12 in a helicopter crash northeast of Baghdad.

The latest fatalities brought the US military s losses in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion to 3,044, according to an AFP count based on Pentagon figures. In Karbala, Militiamen armed with grenades and light weapons attacked a joint command centre where Iraqi and US officials were meeting Saturday to discuss security for the Shiite mourning ceremony of Ashura. Karbala governor Akhil al-Khazali said the attackers wore US and Iraqi military uniforms and carried valid identity cards which helped them breach security perimeters. Those who carried out this operation were in GMC four-wheel drive vehicles and wore official Iraqi and US military uniforms, Khazali said in a statement.

They fought a battle with Americans posted in the operations room at the police headquarters.

Ashura, which commemorates the seventh-century slaying of the Prophet Mohammed s grandson Imam Hussein in Karbala, has been marred in the past by attacks by Sunni extremists that have killed scores of people.

Local authorities are setting up road blocks and imposing vehicle bans for the commemorations for the holiest event on the Shiite calendar, which began on Sunday and will culminate on Jan. 30.