"We know the (Iraqi) forces there can face these outlaw groups, but we want to tell the people that the government is present everywhere," al-Bolani said.

He refused to identify the groups, but police said they were members of al-Sadr's Mahdi Army.

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The anti-American cleric has lost control of some elements of his militia, and it was unclear whether the gunmen considered themselves loyal to the cleric or were a renegade group intent on local control.

About 40 suspected militiamen were captured, a police official said on condition of anonymity out of concern for his safety.

Muthana was under control of British forces until July, when it became the first province to revert to Iraqi control.

"No multinational forces are there at all," said Maj. Charlie Burbridge, spokesman for British forces in the neighboring province of Basra.

A string of bombings claimed the lives of six US soldiers in an around Baghdad.

Three members the US 89th Military Police Brigade were killed Saturday in east Baghdad when a roadside bomb detonated, the US military said.

A fourth soldier, assigned to the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, died Saturday in an explosion in Diyala, east of the Iraqi capital.

Two more US soldiers were killed Saturday in separate roadside blasts near Baghdad, the US military said. One of them died when a bomb exploded southeast of the capital near a patrol searching for "suspected terrorists," the military said. Four other soldiers were wounded in that incident.

The sixth US soldier was killed when a bomb exploded southwest of Baghdad, near a patrol delivering supplies to units in the area.

With their deaths, at least 2,969 members of the US military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

American troops hunting house-to-house for Shiite militia leaders in Baghdad described Christmas as just another day in Iraq.

"In the back of your mind you think about it, but there are no holidays in Iraq," said Staff Sgt. Brandon Scott, a 35-year-old from Woodbridge, Va., and the 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, which is part of the Army's 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division.

Iraq's Christians quietly celebrated behind closed doors, afraid to identify themselves in an Iraqi public increasingly divided along religious and sectarian lines. Some Christmas Eve church services in Baghdad were canceled because of security concerns.

Police found the handcuffed, tortured bodies of 38 men throughout the country on Sunday, more apparent victims of sectarian violence.

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