25 Insurgents Killed, .5 Civilians Killed, 7 Iraq Police killed, 15 American Soldiers injured

Insurgents Are Killed Trying to Overrun U.S. Outpost in Mosul

By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr. and KHALID AL-ANSARY AGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 29 - United States troops and warplanes killed at least 25 insurgents who used car bombs and rocket-propelled grenades to try to overrun an American combat outpost in Mosul on Wednesday afternoon, the American military said. It was the fiercest fighting the restive northern city has seen in weeks.

Fifteen American soldiers were wounded, military officials said.

The two-hour battle followed an ambush on Tuesday night in Baghdad where insurgents tricked the Iraqi police into raiding a booby-trapped home and then detonated a powerful bomb that killed at least seven police officers and 25 others, Iraqi officials said on Wednesday. Most of the civilian victims were family members who were crushed to death when the blast flattened nearby homes, the officials said.

Title links to New York Times article