During three raids that took place on Sunday in the Shiite district of Sadr City in northern Baghdad there were at least 49 people killed.

"Coalition forces were engaged in a heavy firefight this morning killing an estimated 49 criminals during operations in Sadr City," a US military statement said.

The operation aimed at hunting down an Iran-funded special group leader that was thought to have been kidnapped several persons.

The military operation involved both ground and air forces, the US military added.

Even if the US army said there were no civilian victims, the Iraqi police and hospitals reported that civilians, including women and children, were also killed in the raids.

The independent news agency Voices of Iraq was told by a police source that actually there were at least 13 people killed and at least 52 injured in the operation, including women and children.

A media source in the Office of Martyr al-Sadr, an organization loyal to the radical Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr said that the US army had surrounded some areas in the district, where there were homes of civilians that were killed in the air raids.

16 people were captured by the US-Iraqi forces, including Ahmad Daynya, a senior member of al-Qaeda, and six others, which were wanted in connection with security related crimes.

Attacks targeting the police and the army across Iraq, had previously made five victims amongst the police forces, leaving other nine injured, making the authorities to impose curfew in two cities.

The independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI) reported that in the northern city of Mosul a police patrol was attacked by gunmen, killing two and injuring other two, on Sunday.

On Saturday evening, a suicide bomber driving a car crashed into a police patrol, killing two security personnel and injuring four, in the city of Fallujah, according to VOI. This incident leaded to the imposition of a curfew.

Another incident occurred in the southern city of Karbala, where a mortar attack on an Iraqi army barracks killed a police officer and injured three, also damaging a hotel in the area.