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Gunmen kill 27 policemen in western Iraq

05 March 2012 18:53 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. A deadly shooting spree by gunmen in Iraq’s western province of Anbar on Monday left 27 policemen killed, as the country is preparing to host the Arab league summit late in the month, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

The attack occurred at about 2:00 a.m. (2300 GMT on Sunday) in the city of Haditha, some 200 km west of Baghdad, when dozens of gunmen wearing military uniforms and using military sport utility vehicles (SUVs) with faked insignia attacked a police checkpoint in eastern the city and shot dead all the policemen.

Another group of insurgents appeared from inside the city with their civilian cars and joined the attacking gunmen, according to a provincial police source from Anbar’s operations command who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"The gunmen were carrying forged arrest warrants and used their military uniforms and vehicles to deceive the checkpoints and to facilitate the capture of their targets in the city," the source said.

The gunmen then stormed the house of Colonel Mohammed Hussein, an ex-commander of a rapid reaction police force, and dragged him from his house.

Afterwards, the attackers attacked a police checkpoint close to Hussein’s house before they broke into the house of Captain Khalid Hammad, a police officer in the city, who was killed immediately after being handcuffed by the gunmen.

The attackers then shot dead Colonel Hussein before they attacked another police checkpoint in the city and traded heavy fire with them.

An Iraqi Interior Ministry source said that the pre-dawn shooting resulted in the killing of 27 policemen, including the two officers, and wounding three policemen.

Three of the attackers were also killed by the clashes, the source said.

"The planed attacks in the Haditha bore the fingerprints of al- Qaida, which threatened to kill policemen in the Sunni provinces if they did not leave their jobs with the government," the source added.

Earlier, al-Qaida and some other Sunni extremist groups vowed to continue fight the Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad despite the withdrawal of U.S. forces late last year.

Authorities in the city imposed curfew as Iraqi security forces blocked the city and deployed in its main streets and intersections.

Later in the day, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, the Commander in Chief of Iraqi Armed Forces, sacked Anbar’s provincial operations chief Lieutenant General Abdul-Aziz al- Obeidi from his post, and ordered the appointment of Lieutenant General Tariq al-Azzawi instead after the deadly attacks in Haditha.

Insurgent attacks continue in the once volatile Sunni Arab area west of Baghdad that stretches through Anbar province to Iraq’s western borders with Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

Monday’s deadly attacks came a few weeks ahead of the Arab League summit slated for March 29, as the Iraqi President Jalal Talabani confirmed in a statement by his office that "the special preparations for the Arab summit are completed, and Baghdad is now ready to receive the Arab leaders."

It also said that Talabani was leaving Monday for medical treatment in the United States and that he "will be back soon to receive Arab leaders who will come to participate in the Arab summit."

Violence and sporadic high profile attacks are still common in Iraqi cities despite the dramatic decrease of violence over the past few years.