AP) BAGHDAD Former Sunni insurgents asked the U.S. to stay away, then ambushed members of al Qaeda in Iraq, killing 18 in a battle that raged for hours north of Baghdad, an ex-insurgent leader and Iraqi police said Saturday.The Islamic Army in Iraq sent advance word to Iraqi police requesting that U.S. helicopters keep out of the area since its fighters had no uniforms and were indistinguishable from al Qaeda, according to the police and a top Islamic Army leader known as Abu Ibrahim.
Abu Ibrahim told The Associated Press that his fighters killed 18 al Qaeda militants and captured 16 in the fight southeast of Samarra, a mostly Sunni city about 60 miles north of Baghdad.
“We found out that al Qaeda intended to attack us, so we ambushed them at 3 p.m. on Friday,” Abu Ibrahim said. He would not say whether any Islamic Army members were killed.
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