US-led forces on Sunday killed eight suspected militants, arrested four and freed nine Iraqis awaiting trial at a kangaroo court run by al Qaeda just north of Baghdad, a military statement said.
The nine were freed when American forces raided a building in the town of Tarmiyah that was allegedly being used by al Qaeda to hold "illegal terrorist court proceedings," the US military statement said.
"Coalition forces found nine Iraqis inside the building, some who had been there for 30 days, bound and awaiting sentencing by the illegal court system. (They) were examined and found to be in relative health." After freeing the men troops engaged five suspected militants armed with rifles and machine guns in a nearby palm grove, killing them all in an operation that also involved air strikes, the statement said.
It added that two suicide vests and other weapons were found at the site, while ammonium nitrate and bomb-making equipment was discovered in a nearby building. In a raid on an alleged cell of al Qaeda in Iraq in the town of Salman Pak, just south of Baghdad, US troops shot dead a man who reportedly drew a pistol when they approached, the statement said.