BAGHDAD, 13 April 2005 — US forces raided a foreign insurgents’ weapons smuggling ring yesterday near the Iraqi town of Qaim along the Syrian border, killing an unknown number of insurgents, the US military said. Residents reported gunbattles and explosions near the remote border town and hospital officials said at least nine people were killed.

Insurgents opened fire on US troops during yesterday’s raid and a number of foreign militants, including at least one bomber, were killed, the military said in a statement. No US forces were injured. The raid occurred a day after insurgents tried unsuccessfully to ram three car bombs, including one fire truck, into a military base in Qaim. But military officials said the attack was not related to the raid.

Residents reported violent clashes before dawn yesterday in the Ish village just north of Qaim, although it was unclear if the violence was related to the raid.

Without providing details, the terror group Al-Qaeda in Iraq, led by Jordanian militant Abu Mussab Al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for the Qaim clashes. The claim, posted on the Internet, couldn’t be verified.

Hamid Al-Alousi, director of Qaim hospital, said his facility had received nine corpses and nearly two dozen wounded in the Ish village violence. Residents of the village said a dozen more people were buried in the area and not taken to the hospital. There was no way to independently confirm their claim. US military officials added that two other raids in the area in the last week resulted in the capture of smugglers who “confessed to bringing weapons, foreign fighters and money for terrorists across the Syrian border into Iraq.”

Suicide car bomber killed five civilians in the northern city of Mosul, further underlining the challenges facing Iraqi security forces groomed to eventually take over from multinational troops. Another car bomb yesterday in Tal Afar killed five people and wounded eight others, including seven children, the US military said.

In a release sent out by his office yesterday, interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi called on US Gen. George Casey to review the cases of Iraqis being held without charges. In the letter sent two days ago, he specifically mentioned several followers of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr and a large number of Sunni imams.

“Resolving such issues will play a big role in consolidating national unity ... and in making the citizens believe in the government’s good intentions to provide security and stability for all Iraqis,” his office said in the statement.

Allawi proposed forming a ministerial committee — made up of the ministers of interior, justice and human rights as well as coalition representatives — to study the issue.

It was unclear, however, if he had the backing of Iraq’s new leaders, who are in the process of forming a new government. One member of the powerful Shiite-led United Iraqi Alliance said he wasn’t aware of Allawi’s letter. Lawmakers in Iraq’s newly elected National Assembly have complained about the US prisons, and said the topic is something that they’d like to discuss.

Lt. Col. Guy Rudisill, a military spokesman, said a board — made up of three lawyers from the multinational forces and two officials from each of the justice, interior and human rights ministries — has already reviewed about 9,000 cases since August 2004, recommending whether the detainees should be released or kept in prison.

— With input from agencies