U.S. soldier killed in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Dec. 22 (UPI) -- One U.S. soldier was killed and 11 other soldiers were wounded in roadside bomb attacks in northern Iraq.

The soldier's death in Kirkuk Friday brought to 3,898 the number of U.S. military personnel killed in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion began in March 2003, CNN reported. Seventeen have died this month.

Meanwhile, in Baghdad, Iraqi Shiite leaders are demanding a limit to the Sunni patrols credited with reducing violence in many Sunni neighborhoods, The New York Times reported Saturday.

The patrols, known as Awakening Councils, have support from the U.S. military and have grown to between 65,000 and 80,000 members this year, most of them in Baghdad, the Times reported.

Shiite leaders worry the Sunni patrols have been infiltrated by insurgents, who could enflame Shiite militias, the Times reported.

"These Awakenings must be an arm of the Iraqi government and not a substitute for it," Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, head of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, said Friday.