Fifteen people were killed in clashes with local security units in northern Iraq on Sunday, Reuters quoted the U.S. military as saying. The military said insurgents had attacked a compound set up by a U.S.-backed neighborhood security unit near Sinjar, a small town 400 km (250 miles) northwest of Baghdad in Nineveh province. It said five members of the neighborhood unit, known by the U.S. military as concerned local citizens or CLCs, were killed and five wounded. The unit counter-attacked, killing 10 insurgents, the military said. Nineveh police said fighting broke out before dawn but said the clashes were in two villages near the town of Tal Abta, south of Mosul, rather than near Sinjar to Mosul's west. They said gunmen in 20 vehicles attacked the villages, killing four CLC members and a woman. Police also said 10 gunmen were killed but there was no immediate explanation for the apparent discrepancy in the location of the remote attacks.
