US forces fire on Iraq minibus, kill 4 - witnesses

BAGHDAD, Nov 23 (Reuters) U S troops opened fire on a minibus, killing four passengers, during a raid on Baghdad's Sadr City district today, police and witnesses said.

Local residents told Reuters the passengers were workers and not militants. Eight people were also wounded when the vehicle was hit by a burst of machinegun fire, they said.

The U S military said it was checking the report.

About 3,000 U S and Iraqi forces have launched a massive hunt in Baghdad for an Iraqi-born U S soldier who was kidnapped on October 23 after leaving the safety of the government's Green Zone to visit his wife and family.

They have concentrated efforts on Sadr City, a stronghold of Shi'ite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army militiamen who are blamed for some of the worst violence in the capital.

Baghdad has been gripped for months by sectarian tit-for-tat killings.

On Tuesday, four people were killed, including a child, in a U S air strike during a raid on Sadr City to seize seven men suspected of involvement in the kidnapping of the U S soldier, Specialist Ahmed Altaie.

Police said U S and Iraqi forces raided a house in Sadr City today and detained five people. The forces encountered the minibus as they were withdrawing.

Reuters television footage showed the bodywork and windscreen of the minibus riddled with bullets and the interior drenched with blood and the sandals of passengers.

REUTERS AKJ BS1204