Iraqi units secure Karbala

BAGHDAD, March 28 (UPI) -- Iraqi soldiers responded to attacks on their patrol vehicles in Baghdad, killing several militants as a patrol uncovered a weapons cache in Karbala.

A rocket-propelled grenade struck an Iraqi patrol in operations in the northern Baghdad suburb of Adhamiyah. The soldiers responded later to small-arms fire, killing one militant, the U.S. military reported.

U.S. Col. Allen Batschelet, the chief of staff of forces operating in Baghdad, said Iraqi forces with the help of U.S.-led forces held "control of every check point in the city."

In Karbala, about 60 miles south of Baghdad, Iraqi security forces arrested several suspects thought to be behind attacks against U.S. and Iraqi units.

Maj. General Raed Shakir Jawdat, the Iraqi police chief in Karbala, said his police forces uncovered a weapons cache in the arresting raid, netting several assault rifles, 14 rocket-propelled grenades and more than 60 mortar rounds, Voices of Iraq said Friday.

"The situation in Karbala is now stable and the citizens are cooperating with the security forces," Jawdat said.