Daylong firefight unfolds in Baghdad

Story Highlights

• NEW: Firefight in Baghdad kills 4 Iraqi soldiers, wounds 16 American troops
• Three separate bombings kill at least 20 in Iraq
• Pentagon asked to extend tours of duty for about 15,000 troops in Iraq
• Thousands follow cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's call to protest U.S. troops in Iraq

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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S. and Iraqi troops, backed by U.S. air support, were locked in a firefight with Iraqi insurgents in central Baghdad throughout the day Tuesday.

The battle left four Iraqi soldiers and three insurgents dead, and at least 16 U.S. soldiers and a child wounded, the U.S. military said.

The fighting started in a predominantly Sunni neighborhood around 7 a.m. when U.S. and Iraqi soldiers were conducting "a routine cordon-and-search operation" and were attacked by insurgents wielding small arms, the military said. Reinforcements were called in and "aviation assets" responded.

"Helicopters targeted by small arms fire suffered minor damage, returned to base and then continued with their missions," the military said in a news release.

Elsewhere, coalition forces pounded insurgent targets across Iraq on Tuesday as part of Operation Black Eagle, the military said. They launched raids in Anbar, in the west of the country, and Baghdad and continued the push that began last week against Shiite militias in the southern city of Diwaniya.

That effort so far has killed 14 people and wounded 61 others, among them Shiite militia members, an Interior Ministry official told CNN.

Attacks on civilians continue

Meanwhile, Iraqi insurgents bombed a college district and a secondary school in Baghdad, and a police recruiting center in Diyala province killing at least 20 people on Tuesday, local authorities told CNN.

At the police recruiting center in the town of Muqdadiya on Tuesday, a female suicide bomber blew herself up, killing 13 people and wounding 19 others, a Baghdad police official said.

Dressed in a black abaya -- a traditional Muslim robe, usually black in color, covering the body from head to toe -- the woman detonated her explosives belt in a crowd of about 200 police recruits, police and hospital officials told the Associated Press.

Muqdadiya is located about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northeast of Baghdad.

In central Baghdad, a car bomb detonated near Baghdad University, killing six people and wounding 11 others, police in Baghdad said. Among those killed and wounded were college students, police said.

Police in Baghdad said a mortar round hit a boys' secondary school in eastern Baghdad, killing a student and wounding 17 others, including 15 students and two teachers. The incident took place along Palestine Street.

In southeastern Baghdad, three U.S. soldiers were killed and another was wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near their patrol on Monday, a U.S. military statement released on Tuesday said.

All of the soldiers were members of Multi-National Division -- Baghdad.

Another U.S. soldier died Monday during combat operations in Anbar province, west of Baghdad, the U.S. military said Tuesday.

The soldier was a member of the Army's Multi-National Force -- West.

The deaths brought to 3,284 the number of U.S. troops killed in the Iraq war. Seven American civilian contractors of the military also have died in the conflict.

Anti-U.S. protests

Thousands of anti-U.S. protesters marched in the Shiite holy city of Najaf on Monday to mark the fourth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad.

Powerful Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called for the demonstration, which Najaf police said included tens of thousands of protesters.

The U.S. Army estimated the crowd size at closer to 5,000 to 7,000 participants based on aerial photographs, said military spokesman Col. Steve Boylan. (Watch how rally sends message of al-Sadr's power )

"[The] peaceful gathering is part of the right to peaceful assembly and the Iraqi people to voice their views," Boylan said, calling it an example of the "changes occurring in Iraq."

Marchers joined the protest from Kufa to neighboring Najaf, 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Baghdad, as Iraqi police watched, according to The Associated Press.

Iraqi flags and leaflets dotted the march route, according to the AP. Some of the leaflets read, "Yes, Yes to Iraq" and "Yes, Yes to Muqtada. Occupiers should leave Iraq," the AP reported. (Interactive: Images of the angry protest)

One marcher, Iraqi lawmaker Nassar al-Rubaie, told the AP, "The enemy that is occupying our country is now targeting the dignity of the Iraqi people."

Al-Rubaie, who leads al-Sadr's bloc in the Iraqi parliament, told the AP: "After four years of occupation, we have hundreds of thousands of people dead and wounded."

Other developments

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Tuesday said "achievements and victories" on the ground -- not timetables -- are the proper barometers that will determine the "departure of international forces" from his war-torn country. His remarks, made during a press conference during his visit to the Japanese capital, come as politicians in the United States debate whether to set a timetable for American troop withdrawal from Iraq.

U.S. commanders in Iraq have asked the Pentagon to extend tours of duty for about 15,000 troops in the war zone by up to four months as part of the troop "surge" that began in January, CNN has learned. Several military sources confirmed that the request is being considered by the Pentagon and could be signed by Defense Secretary Robert Gates this week. The extension would apply to four ground combat brigades and a combat aviation brigade now in Iraq. The specific units have not yet been identified, according to sources.

The Pentagon on Monday identified four U.S. National Guard units that will return to Iraq for a second time: the 39th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, based in Little Rock, Arkansas; the 45th Infantry Brigade, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; the 76th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Indianapolis, Indiana; and the 37th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Columbus, Ohio. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates signed papers Friday for the four brigades to return to Iraq later this year or in early 2008. The 12,000 troops are to be rotated into the country to replace forces that are leaving.

CNN's Mike Mount, Carolina Sanchez, Barbara Starr and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.

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