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| Iraq |
| Gunmen kill 20 in Diyala Province |
| 2008-09-25 |
| Gunmen ambushed and killed 12 policemen and eight US-backed Sunni militiamen in Diyala Province north of Baghdad on Wednesday as rebel violence continued despite a security force crackdown. The gunmen struck at around 3:30 p.m. in the village of Al-Dulaimat in Diyala of which Baqouba is the capital, a security official said. He said the policemen and the militiamen had gathered in the village when they were ambushed by the gunmen. Doctor Ahmad Fouad of Baqouba hospital confirmed it had received 20 dead. "The bodies are riddled with bullets," he told AFP. The security official said the area surrounding the village was a longstanding Al-Qaeda stronghold. He said the slain policemen included three officers - a colonel, a lieutenant colonel and a captain. The ambush took place as the police detachment deployed in the village to take part in a raid against Al-Qaeda militants alongside militiamen of the Sahwa, or "Awakening, Council." "They were in three vehicles when several armed men ambushed and killed all of them," the official said. Diyala is the most dangerous of Iraq's 18 provinces despite a US-backed offensive which the security forces launched against Al-Qaeda and other insurgents in May. The province has seen a spate of suicide bombings, many of them carried out by women. On September 15, a woman suicide bomber blew herself up in a crowd of people during a feast in the town of Balad Druz in Diyala, killing 22 people and wounding dozens more. A few days before he left Iraq earlier this month, the outgoing commander of US forces, General David Petraeus, told AFP that Al-Qaeda was still capable of launching lethal attacks in the country. He said the group had been significantly damaged but was still not defeated. |
| Posted by:Fred |