The New Nation - Internet Edition

Reuters, Baghdad

About 25 suspected Iraqi militants were killed in an air strike on Friday targeting a "special groups" commander working with Iran's Revolutionary Guards, the U.S. military said. U.S. troops were engaged in what the military said was a heavy firefight west of Baquba, capital of volatile Diyala province, during a raid against a commander it said was linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' elite Qods force.

Support aircraft were called in when U.S. soldiers came under atack from militants firing assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, with one insurgent thought to have an anti-aircraft weapon.

"Perceiving hostile intent, support aircraft engaged, killing an estimated 25 criminals and destroying two buildings," the military said in a statement

Police and hospital sources said 25 people were killed and another 35 wounded in the U.S. air strike in the village of Jezan al-Imam near Khalis, a town northwest of Baquba. They said four houses were also destroyed. U.S. commanders in Iraq have repeatedly accused Shi'ite Iran's Revolutionary Guards of training and arming Shi'ite militias in Iraq and supplying them with weapons, including rockets and roadside bombs, by far the biggest killers of U.S. troops in Iraq.

Tehran denies the charge and blames the sectarian violence in Iraq, in which tens of thousands of Iraqis have died, on the 2003 U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein.

The operation early on Friday targeted what the U.S. military described as a "special groups" commander, a term it often uses to describe militants it says are linked to Iran.

"Intelligence indicates he was responsible for facilitating criminal activity and is involved in the movement of various weapons from Iran to Baghdad," the statement said.