Four members of a US-backed militia fighting Al-Qaeda in Iraq were killed in a raid on their base in the town of Baquba north of Baghdad on Sunday, Iraqi and US sources said.
The attackers managed to flee after blowing up the base of the Baquba Awakening Council in the Diyala provincial capital, Iraqi police Lieutenant Colonel Suheil Ibrahim said, according to AFP. The US military confirmed that four militiamen had died in the raid.
Elsewhere, a senior Interior Ministry official and his bodyguard were hurt and his driver was killed Sunday by a bomb planted on his car, police said. Lt. Col. Mohammed Ibrahim, director of Iraq's police commandos, an elite special forces group, was heading to work when the bomb went off around 10 a.m. in the Mansour neighborhood, an officer said, according to the AP.
Meanwhile, a mortar round landed in a street in a northeastern section of the capital, killing an Iraqi soldier on foot patrol, another police officer said. The attack occurred at 9 a.m. Sunday in the Sulaikh area, police said.
South of Baghdad, an Iraqi policeman was killed in a drive-by shooting Sunday near Kut, 100 miles southeast of the capital, police said.
