KUFA, Iraq - Two Iraqis were killed and 12 wounded Friday in clashes pitting Shiite radicals against Spanish and Salvadoran coalition troops near the central Iraqi cities of Kufa and Najaf, officials said.
"Two people were killed and 12 others wounded in the exchange of fire and the body of one of the victims was brought to our hospital," Hussein Ghazali of the Najaf General Hospital said.
"The other person who was killed and the wounded were not brought to us because the Spanish forces are preventing travel between the two cities," Ghazali said from the shrine city of Najaf.
He did not say if the casualties were civilians or members of the outlawed Mehdi Army militia of Shiite radical leader Moqtada Sadr.
Earlier Major Carlos Herradon, a spokesman for the Spanish-led Plus Ultra Brigade, said there were no injuries in the clashes.
"The Andalus base where Spanish and Salvadoran soldiers are deployed was pounded with mortars, rockets and automatic weapons fire but no one was hurt," Herradon said.
The road between the twin shrine cities was closed to traffic, and a coalition helicopter was flying overhead, a correspondent said.
Mehdi Army militiamen could be seen darting in and out of the area.
One of them later said that he participated in three simultaneous attacks against the coalition forces earlier in the day during which the militants lobbed mortars at the base.
Separately, three Spanish soldiers were injured overnight in the southern town of Diwaniyah, 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of Kufa, the Spanish defence ministry said in a statement in Madrid.
The soldiers came under attack while crossing a bridge in the town on patrol and one of them was seriously wounded when he was hit in the eye and neck, the ministry said, adding that his condition was not life threatening.
Spain currently has 1,300 troops deployed in Iraq, but incoming Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has pledged to pull the force out by June 30 unless the United Nations is given a central role in operations.
El Salvador has 397 soldiers in the Plus Ultra Brigade, which also has contingents from other Central American or Caribbean nations.
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