Iraqi forces battle gunmen in central Baghdad

Baghdad: Iraqi soldiers backed by US troops battled gunmen in central Baghdad early Tuesday, and explosions were heard in the area, police and witnesses said.

Iraqi troops were being backed by US fighter jets and military helicopters, which hovered above the capital's notorious Sunni neighbourhood of Haifa Street where the battle was centered, the US military and witnesses said.

Skirmishes began in the early hours of Tuesday and by daylight had grown into a heated firefight, forcing residents to steer clear of key roads.

Police said the clashes erupted when gunmen attacked Iraqi army checkpoints in the Haifa Street area, and that Iraqi soldiers appealed to the US military for help. American forces sealed off roads and joined Iraqi troops in raiding houses in pursuit of the gunmen, police said.

The area is a Sunni insurgent stronghold in the centre of the Iraqi capital, just to the north of the heavily fortified Green Zone which houses the US and British Embassies, as well as many Iraqi government offices.

The Iraqi defense ministry issued a statement saying 11 people were arrested, including seven Syrians.

The US military said soldiers from the 1st Brigade, 6th Iraqi army division with support from coalition forces "are conducting targeted raids to capture multiple targets, disrupt insurgent activity and restore Iraqi security forces' control of north Haifa Street."

"This area has been subject to insurgent activity which has repeatedly disrupted Iraqi security force operation in central Baghdad," Lieutenant Colonel Scott Bleichwehl said in the statement.

He said the joint forces were being subjected during the operation to small arms fire, rocket-propelled grenades and indirect fire attacks.

"The operation is currently ongoing," Bleichwehl said.

The US military also said in an e-mail that its troops "continue to conduct clearing operations in Baghdad and throughout Iraq," and that it would release more information on the Haifa Street clashes later Tuesday.

Fighting broke out there late Saturday, and the Iraqi army reported killing 30 militants that night - hours after Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki announced a new open-ended security plan to oust sectarian killers from Baghdad.

Iraqi state television said eight militants, including five Sudanese fighters, were captured on Saturday near Haifa Street. Police reported finding the bodies of 27 torture victims dumped there earlier in the day.

In other violence on Tuesday, a policeman was wounded when a roadside bomb hit his patrol car in downtown Baghdad, police said.

Another roadside bomb missed an Iraqi army patrol in Mosul but wounded an eight-year-old girl nearby, Iraqi Col. Eidan Al Jubouri said. Mosul is 360 kilometres northwest of Baghdad.