(KUNA) -- Violence in Basra city, southern Iraq, continued Thursday leading to the death of a hospital director in addition to the injury of 20 soldiers.According to a security source, Dr. Najem Abdullah, Director of Basra General Hospital was targeted by gunmen while leaving his house with the encounter resulting in the death of Dr. Abdullah. Meanwhile, 20 soldiers were transferred to Al-Yarmouk hospital after being seriously injured in the operations to crackdown on militias in Basra. Around 130 people where killed since the operations began on Tuesday.
On other developments, the Iraqi police apprehended three policemen accused of leading insurgents to locations of the Iraqi army. Four citizens were killed in Al-Hussien neighborhood when demonstrating against the military campaign supervised personally by Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki.
Also three policemen were killed when a convoy of Basra's chief of police was targeted by a suicide bomber while other militias decided to blow up an oil pipeline in an effort to effect the local economy, a step feared by the government since the operations began three days ago.