|
The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
|
December 3rd,
2009 - Iraq Violence Kills Eight, Including Senior Anti-Terror Cop |
|
Iraq Violence Kills
Eight, Including Senior Anti-Terror Cop From Agence France Presse December 3, 2009 Tikrit, Iraq - Attacks in
Iraq on Thursday killed eight people, including a senior anti-terror officer
who led a key fightback against Al-Qaeda in his province, police said. Lieutenant Colonel Ahmed
al-Fahel, the head of the Saleheddin province anti-terror squad, and at least
three of his bodyguards were among five people killed by a suicide bomber in
Tikrit, the hometown of executed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. "The attack was carried
out by a suicide bomber, who was wearing a vest packed with explosives,"
said Colonel Abdel Haadi of the Salaheddin joint operations command. Seven people were wounded by
the blast in a jewellery store, which struck at around 5:00 pm (1400 GMT) in
Tikrit, 160 kilometres (100 miles) north of Baghdad, a police officer said,
speaking on condition of anonymity. Fahel, who was in his 40s,
was one of the leaders of a campaign against Al-Qaeda in predominantly Sunni
Arab Salaheddin which began in 2007 and helped eradicate the terror network's
presence in the province. The officer, who was also a
policeman during Saddam's rule, had previously escaped several assassination
attempts. In another incident in
northern Iraq, two soldiers were killed at a checkpoint in the town of
Mohallabiyah, 40 kilometres (25 miles) northwest of the main northern city of
Mosul, when gunmen opened fire on them before fleeing. In the capital Baghdad, one
person was killed and six wounded by a bomb in Adhamiyah, a predominantly
Sunni Arab northern neighbourhood, an interior ministry official said. Violence across Iraq dropped
dramatically last month, with the fewest deaths in attacks since the US-led
invasion of 2003. Official figures showed that
a total of 122 people were killed last month - 88 civilians, 22 policemen and
12 soldiers. Those figures were down
markedly from October, when violence killed a total of 410 people across
Iraq, a substantial number of them in twin suicide bombings near government
offices in Baghdad that killed more than 150 people. Copyright © 2009 AFP. External link: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gPQmE7AwkzSSG7PIXD1LlsF9iUeA |