The U.S. military says U.S. and Iraqi forces have killed 14 insurgents during clashes in Baghdad's Sadr City district since Friday.

The military says the insurgents were killed in a series of ground battles and air strikes.

A boy examines an ambulance destroyed in an apparent US airstrike in the Shiite stronghold of Sadr City in Baghdad, Iraq, 03 May 2008

Staff at Sadr City's main hospital say the medical facility was damaged during the air strikes.  They say at least 25 people were wounded, windows were shattered and ambulances were destroyed.

The U.S. military said U.S. and Iraqi forces targeted a command-control center in Sadr City where militants planned attacks on civilians and troops.

The Associated Press news agency reports that local media say Shi'ite extremists are known to have operated near the main hospital.

A smaller building next to the hospital was demolished in the strike.

U.S. and Iraqi forces have fought fierce battles against Shi'ite militiamen loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in Sadr City for the past month.

A U.S. military statement Saturday says al-Qaida in Iraq killed three civilians and severely wounded three others in a car bomb attack outside the capital late Friday. 

The military says the Iraqi leader of a group that battles al-Qaida in Iraq was the target of the attack.  He was wounded in the blast, but survived, while three of his family members were killed.

In a separate statement Saturday, the military says a U.S. soldier died from wounds he sustained on Friday when his vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb in eastern Baghdad.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.