Region | Iraq
Al Qaida militants kill at least 13 in Iraq
Al Qaida militants killed dozens of members of a neighbourhood police patrol in southern Baghdad on Thursday after taking them by surprise by driving up in a stolen Iraqi army vehicle, police said.
- Agencies
- Published: 16:14 November 22, 2007
Baghdad: Al Qaida militants killed dozens of members of a neighbourhood police patrol in southern Baghdad on Thursday after taking them by surprise by driving up in a stolen Iraqi army vehicle, police said.
The Al Qaida fighters had commandeered the vehicle from two Iraqi soldiers whom they shot.
They opened fire on the police patrol in the Hawr Rajab area of southern Baghdad's Doura district, a mainly Sunni Arab area and Al Qaida stronghold, after approaching in at least one of two vehicles they had stolen.
An Interior Ministry official confirmed that eight "Awakening Council" members had been killed. He said three Iraqi soldiers were killed and another three were wounded, and that two Al Qaida gunmen had also been killed.
Mainly Sunni Arab tribal shaikhs have been organising young men into local police units, known as concerned local citizens, to drive out Sunni Islamist Al Qaida. These have been partly credited for falling levels of violence in Iraq.
Separately, Iraqi soldiers supported by US forces killed 19 Al Qaida fighters north of Baquba, Major-General Abdul-Karim Al Rubaie, the head of Iraqi military operations in Diyala province northeast of Baghdad, told Reuters.
The Al Qaida fighters were killed in an area controlled by the Al Qaida-linked Islamic State in Iraq, he said. Two members of a neighbourhood police unit there were killed in the operation and another three were wounded.
Meanwhile, at least two mortar bombs landed inside Baghdad's Green Zone on Thursday, an Iraqi government
spokesman said, and thick smoke could be seen rising from the centre of the heavily fortified compound.
There was no immediate indication of any casualties or
damage in the zone, which houses the US and British embassies, the Iraqi parliament and many government ministries.
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