A car exploded outside an Iraqi policemanÂ’s wedding reception in the western city of Fallujah on Thursday, killing at least seven people, police Captain Ahmed Faisal said.Lieutenant Naim al-Jumaili and his bride survived the blast, but three more guests are missing and presumed also to have died, he added. Separately, fierce clashes between insurgents and police left at least eight people dead and 11 wounded south of Baghdad on Thursday, police sources said. The clashes occurred in the religiously mixed town of Iskandariya, 40 km south of Baghdad, and police said both sides suffered casualties. A police source said the clashes were still in progress and they expected the casualty toll to rise.
Baghdad appeared quieter on Thursday, with only one person killed in a roadside bomb, police said. Also on Thursday, the US military said American and Iraqi troops killed 10 militants and seized six weapons stashes in Diyala province northeast of Baghdad. The raids took place over the past three days, it said. The 10 were killed on Monday in Muqdadiyah, a town in Diyala about 95 kilometres northeast of Baghdad, the military said in a statement. Five others were detained in the operation. Soldiers also discovered more than 50 rocket-propelled grenades, bomb-making materials and a stolen fire truck that was being loaded with explosives, the statement said. Another cache was discovered the same day in Baqouba, the provincial capital of Diyala, that included a complete mortar system and 150 rounds of ammunition, the military said.
A US Army helicopter made a “hard landing” in northern Iraq on Thursday, but the military said the problem was mechanical and not the result of hostile fire. Two pilots were injured and evacuated to an American military hospital in Kirkuk, about 290 kilometres north of Baghdad, the military said in a statement. The military also announced the killing on Wednesday of a US Marine in the western Anbar province. The Marine’s name was withheld pending family notification. The death brought to 79 the total number of Americans killed in Iraq in February. At least 3,163 members of the US military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003. The secular party led by former Iraqi interim prime minister Iyad Allawi threatened on Thursday to quit the country’s embattled government of national unity, accusing officials of sectarian bias. Allawi’s Iraqi National List is the only major political party in Iraq to include high-ranking members from both the Sunni and Shia community. It has five ministers and 25 members of parliament. The List says Maliki’s government has failed to honour promises to allow more Sunnis into public service and of persecuting its enemies under the guise of fighting corruption and terrorism.