Global General

Two killed, 3 al-Qaida members captured in Iraq

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-05-03 17:07

BAGHDAD - Two people were killed and five others wounded in separate bomb and gunfire attacks in Baghdad and Iraq's eastern province of Diyala, where an al-Qaida leader and two of his aides were captured on Tuesday, police said.

In Baghdad, a female employee in Baghdad municipality was killed when a sticky bomb attached to her car detonated on a highway in Doura district in southern the capital, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

In a separate incident, a roadside bomb went off near a police patrol in Doura district, wounding a policeman and two civilians, the source said.

In downtown Baghdad, a civilian was wounded in a roadside bomb explosion in the busy al-Naser Square, the source added.

In Diyala, an Awakening Council group member was shot dead by gunmen in al-Hashmiyat area in northwest of the provincial capital city of Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad, a source from Diyala's operations command told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The Awakening Council group, or al-Sahwa in Arabic, consists of paramilitary groups, including some powerful anti-US Sunni insurgent groups, who turned their rifles against the al-Qaida network after the latter exercised indiscriminate killings against both Shiite and Sunni Muslim communities.

Separately, gunmen wounded Shakir Mahmoud, an Iraqi army officer, in the town of al-Maqdadiyah, some 40 km northeast of Baquba, the source said.

Also in the province, a joint US and Iraqi force dropped by helicopters in the early hours of the day on houses at the al- Tahwilah area, some 10 km north of Baquba, and captured Mahmoud al- Obiedi, an al-Qaida leader and two of his lieutenants, the source said without giving further details.

Iraq frequently announced its troops killed or captured al- Qaida leaders and their militants across the country. Such announcements are seen as victories for the country's security forces.