The U.S. military in Iraq says troops killed six terrorists and detained 18 suspects during operations in central and northern Iraq Saturday.
The military says troops engaged a group of armed men using women and children as human shields in Diyala province. It says troops called in an airstrike that killed six of the terrorists after the civilians were released.
In Mosul, the military says a man believed to be a senior leader of al-Qaida in Iraq surrendered during a raid. Coalition forces also detained the suspected leader of a car bomb network southeast of Baghdad.
Separately, Iraqi police say gunmen stormed a house south of Baghdad and killed eight members of the family that lived there.
And Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Saturday Iraqi forces are ready to take over security responsibility whenever U.S. troops leave.
But he said Iraqi forces still need more training and equipment.
On Friday, the U.S. military killed six Iraqi policemen and seven gunmen in Baghdad when troops arrested an Iraqi police lieutenant accused leading an insurgent group with close links to Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps.
Some information for this report provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
