10/20/2004 11:13:00 PM GMT
Fierce clashes in the northern Iraqi town of Samarra killed at least six civilians and injured 11 American soldiers on Wednesday.
The U.S. army also reported that two car bomb blasts killed a child and wounded a civilian translator in the center of the city.
Medics reported that six civilians had been killed and 17 injured in many clashes across the town.
Witnesses said that U.S. forces were seen in their vehicles with loudspeakers telling Samarra residents to stay off the streets between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m.
Residents in the area also reported that clashes that started in the afternoon were continuing at night on the edges of the city and the town of Duluiya, which lies some 12 miles south of Samarra.
The American and Iraqi troops have surrounded the town of Duluiya on Tuesday and captured scores of rebels.
The interim Iraqi government, backed by U.S. forces, has vowed to regain control of rebel-held areas in Iraq ahead of the elections due in January.
The U.S. army had previously claimed that Samarra had pacified after the offensive earlier this month.
Iraq calls for more UN election aid
Meanwhile, the Iraqi foreign minister said Wednesday that the United Nations has not sent enough monitors and other employees to help out with the upcoming elections in Iraq.
The United Nations has withdrawn its international staff from Iraq a year ago following attacks on its headquarters in Baghdad.
UN chief Kofi Annan has since permitted a small team to go to Iraq and help with elections but won't expand it without greater protection for them amid Iraq's increasing violence.
"It is unfortunate that the contribution and participation of UN employees in this process is not up to expectations," Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said.
Zebari also said that a "very limited" number of UN workers were expected to arrive in Iraq, adding that the number expected in Iraq was far smaller than the 300 employees that the United Nations dispatched to monitor the first elections in East Timor — which has a much smaller population and land area.
"Judging by the size of the process in Iraq and its complexity, we definitely need a larger UN presence in Iraq, at least to bestow trust upon the electoral process," Zebari said.
He said that Iraq will raise the issue of greater UN and international support during a conference on Iraq that will be held next month in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik.
The conference will bring together Iraq's neighbors, the eight major industrialized powers and China, the United Nations, the Arab League, the Organization of Islamic Conference and the European Union.