5 killed, 13 injured in Iraqi violence

Four people were killed and 13 others wounded in separate attacks in Iraq Monday, while an al- Qaida militant leader was shot dead in a raid, the police said.

In Iraq’s eastern province of Diyala, two policemen were killed when a roadside bomb struck a joint police-army patrol in the western part of the provincial capital city of Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Iraq’s capital Baghdad, a provincial police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Five policemen and three soldiers, including an officer, were wounded by the blast, the source said.

In a separate incident, a paramilitary member of local Awakening Council group was killed and three others wounded when gunmen, believed to be affiliated to al-Qaida network in Iraq, attacked their checkpoint at a village some 35 km northeast of Baquba, the source said.

The Awakening Council group consists of armed groups, including some powerful anti-U.S. insurgent groups, who turned their rifles against al-Qaida after the latter exercised indiscriminate killings .

Also in the province, an Iraqi army and police force shot dead Abu Jihad, a suspected al-Qaida leader, when they raided his safe house at the village of Makheisah, some 30 km northeast of Baquba, the source said.

Abu Jihad is believed to have been involved in many attacks against Iraqi military patrols in Diyala province, he added.

In addition, two soldiers were wounded when gunmen attacked their checkpoint in the same village, he said.

In Salahudin province, a policeman was killed when a sticky bomb attached to his car detonated while he was driving in north of the provincial capital city of Tikrit, some 170 km north of Baghdad, a provincial police source anonymously told Xinhua.

Violence is still common in the Iraqi cities despite the dramatic decrease since its peak in 2006 and 2007.

R.S