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4 policemen killed in attacks in Iraq’s Diyala

25 July 2012 20:13 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Four policemen were killed and 12 people wounded in separate attacks on Wednesday in Iraq’s eastern province of Diyala, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

Two policemen were killed and three others wounded when gunmen attacked a foot patrol in al-Hashimiyat area, just north of the provincial capital city of Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad, the source said on condition of anonymity.

In a separate incident, gunmen attacked a police patrol in al- Hadid area, some 10 km northwest of Baquba, killing two policemen and wounding two others, the source said.

In addition, five people were wounded when a roadside bomb went off in front of a house in al-Mafraq area in western Baquba, the source added.

Meanwhile, two policemen were wounded when a roadside bomb struck their vehicle near a village located some 30 km northeast of Baquba, he said.

Also in the province, Iraqi security forces raided an insurgents’ safe house in the city of Jalawlaa, some 70 km northeast of Baquba, and captured five people believed to be members of an al-Qaida cell, who are involved in assassinations and bomb attacks in the city, Lieutenant Colonel Ghalib al-Karkhi, spokesman of Diyala provincial police, told Xinhua.

The troops also seized a cache of weapons, ammunition and bombs during the raid, Karkhi said.

Diyala province, which stretches from the eastern edges of Baghdad to the Iranian border east of the country, has long been a stronghold for al-Qaida militants and other insurgent groups since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 despite repeated U.S. and Iraqi military operations against them.