BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi security forces have killed more than 30 Islamist militants in a new military operation in the restive province of Diyala, a security official said on Tuesday. Colonel Salam Ahmed Najim, a spokesman for security operations in Diyala, said that Iraqi police and army were in the fifth day of the new operation targeting Sunni Islamist al Qaeda and other militants in Diyala, northeast of Baghdad.
He said 31 suspected militants were killed on Monday alone. Since the operation began, security officials in Diyala said, 60 people have been arrested, including three women, and militant safe houses have been identified.
Weapons stores have also been seized, including suicide vests. Najem did not have a figure for how many militants had been killed since the push began last week. "The operation will continue," he said.
Security has improved in Iraq since the sectarian bloodshed unleashed by the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, but ethnically mixed areas like Diyala and northern Nineveh province are still plagued by a persistent Sunni Arab insurgency. Al Qaeda has rural hideouts dotted all over Diyala's vast palm groves and protected by booby traps, bombs and land mines.
A rash of major suicide bombings in recent weeks has raised questions about whether militants will stage a comeback as U.S. forces prepare to withdraw and Iraq prepares for divisive national elections due to take place at the end of 2009.