http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061129/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraqBAGHDAD, Iraq - Fierce fighting between coalition forces and insurgents shut down a city north of Baghdad on Wednesday and gunfire crackled across the capital, as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki traveled to Jordan for a summit with President Bush aimed at halting the country's escalating sectarian violence and paving the way for a reduction of American troops.
By 3 p.m., 13 insurgents, six policemen, and six civilians had been killed, including two Iraqi females who were caught up in a coalition raid north of the capital, police and U.S. officials said. That raised to seven the number of Iraqi females, including an infant, who had died during American raids in Iraq in the last two days. The mangled bodies of six civilians who had been kidnapped and tortured also were found, police said.
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Meanwhile, heavy fighting continued in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, where clashes between coalition forces and Sunni-Arab insurgents have killed scores of militants and civilians in the past few days.
The university, public schools and many stores remained closed, and the capital's streets were mostly empty, except for a few people who dashed out to small fruit or vegetable stalls to stock up on food.
In a city with a crumbling infrastructure, few residents had electricity and most only received limited water supplies. Many Shiites and Sunnis have fled neighborhoods where they live in a minority, seeking refuge with relatives in nearby provinces or, if they had the money, in neighboring Jordan and Syria.
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