At least 30 suspected Shia militia fighters have been killed in clashes with US and Iraqi forces in the southern Iraqi city of Diwaniyah.
The fighting occurred as Iraqi and US forces arrested a local Shia militia leader accused of involvement in the killing of Iraqi soldiers in August.
Kifah al-Greiti, who the US described as a 'high-value target', is thought to be a local commander in the Mehdi Army of Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
During the clashes, a US tank was severely damaged when it was struck by multiple rocket-propelled grenades.
Diwaniyah's main hospital said it had treated seven civilians who had sustained injuries during the violence.
Senior Iraqi police officer shot dead
A senior officer in the Iraqi police internal affairs department has been shot dead in Baghdad.
Colonel Tamer Salman was assistant to the director of police internal affairs, an increasingly important unit at a time when the government is under pressure to eradicate corruption in the force.
More than 4,000 Iraqi police have been killed over the past two years.
The murder comes just five days after an entire Iraqi police brigade was accused of colluding with groups carrying out sectarian killings. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered the brigade be sent for what he described as 'retraining'.
Iraq's fledgling police force has been accused of taking sides in the country's spiralling sectarian war, with Shia-dominated units reported to be allowing militia fighters to attack members of the Sunni minority population.
US officials subsequently revealed that not only was the brigade allowing Shia militias to operate in certain neighbourhoods, but that the police commander was implicated in a mass kidnapping operation.
