IRAQ: Seven killed in clashes with Iraqi army northeast of Baghdad

Record ID: 352752

  • Title: IRAQ: Seven killed in clashes with Iraqi army northeast of Baghdad
  • Date: 14th October 2006
  • Summary: PEOPLE STANDING NEAR BODY ON STRETCHER NEAR MORGUE
  • Embargoed: 29th October 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: War / Fighting
  • Reuters ID: LVA7GHFQDTM3CJ01Z18DPUBYU6R6
  • Story Text: Mourners collected bodies from a morgue in Baquba on Saturday (October 14) one day after seven people were killed when they were caught in an exchange of fire between the Iraqi army and militants during a search-and-arrest operation.
    The dead, including one woman, were killed after Iraqi troops launched an operation in Khan Bani Saad town, 30 km (19 miles) south of the restive city of Baquba.
    "They fired at my cousin and broke his leg and then they put him in a car and drove away. They took four other people along with him. I do not know their fate," said one unidentified relative of the dead.
    An Iraqi military source said 75 people, including 12 wanted suspects were arrested in the sweep.
    Iraqi security forces are launching "Rapid Response Operation" throughout Diyala province to disrupt insurgent activities.
    U.S. commanders describe Diyala as "the perfect storm" -- an area where Kurds, Sunnis and Shi'ites all are competing for control of towns and villages. Like the ethnically and religiously mixed capital to the south, it has seen a surge of violence since an attack on a Shi'ite shrine in February.
    Elsewhere two car bombs exploded in a quick succession in central Baghdad on Saturday, wounding two civilians, police said.
    Witnesses said one car bomb in a parking lot in the Bad al-Sharji wounded a guard of the parking lot and another man.
    "The park has three spaces for parking cars; two of them in front of the shops and one in the middle, the car bomb was parked in the middle. I think it was an Omega car," an unidentified eyewitness said.
    The target of the blast was not known.
    A funeral was held on Friday (October 13) in the Shi'ite holy city of Kerbala for a commander of a special police force who was killed by a bomb planted in a police station in Hilla.
    Colonel Salam al-Mamoury, commander of the Scorpion Troops police force, his deputy and six other people were killed in the blast, which also wounded 10 others and punched a hole in the building's ceiling in central Hilla, 100 km (62 miles) south of Baghdad, said Captain Muthana al-Mamoury, spokesman for Hilla police.
    "We are shocked this day by the tragic news of the death of the brave Colonel Salam Tarad al-Mamoury, Commander of the Scorpion Troops in Babylon province . We can not describe our pain in words. It is a big loss to the country in general and the province in particular," said Major Ali Hussein.
    According to Shi'ite rituals, the coffin was taken to the Imam al-Hussin Shrine for prayer before taking it to the cemetery for burial.
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