Gunmen ambushed an Iraqi police checkpoint in northern Iraq before dawn Wednesday, killing six officers in a sophisticated attack on fledgling Iraqi security facilities, police said. The attackers packed into four cars screeched up to the checkpoint south of Mosul at around 1:30 a.m., attacking it from both sides, said police Brig. Abdel-Karim al-Jubouri. Clashes lasted some 15 minutes, after which all the gunmen escaped, al-Jubouri said, according to the AP.
Six policemen died and the other four at the checkpoint were wounded, he said. Al-Jubouri said it is believed that the assailants sustained some casualties but nobody was left behind.
The attack occurred in the Gayara area south of Mosul.
In Diyala's al Salam area, gunmen opened fire on a car at 9 a.m. killing two and wounding two others, while an hour later in another area, assailants shot into a crowd in central Muqdadiyah killing two and wounding two, police said.
Other scattered violence left at least five other Iraqis dead, police said, including a civilian killed by a roadside bomb on Palestine Street, a popular shopping district in the Iraqi capital. The bomb targeted a passing convoy of SUVs, and left five other people wounded, police said.
The attacks came less than a day after gunmen fired rockets or mortars at the garrison that houses the headquarters of American forces in Iraq, killing one person and injuring 11 occupation soldiers, the U.S. command said.
The violence occurred after two days of congressional testimony by U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker and the top commander Gen. David Petraeus, on the situation in Iraq since U.S. President George W. Bush's decision to send 30,000 reinforcements to stem sectarian violence.
Petraeus recommended keeping the bulk of U.S. forces in Iraq after next summer. The Iraqi government welcomed Petraeus' recommendation to keep additional forces in Iraq into this coming year, giving assurances that the need for U.S. military support here would decrease over time.
Iraq's National Security Adviser Mouwaffak al-Rubaie, reading from a government statement, said the Iraqis believed that "in the near future" the need for U.S. and other coalition forces "will decrease."
"The aim of the Iraqi government is to achieve self-reliance in security as soon as possible, but we still need the support of coalition forces to reach this point," cautioned al-Rubaie.
On Tuesday, Petraeus heard strong criticism from some congressional Democrats who oppose continued U.S. involvement in the 4 1/2 year war that has claimed at least 3,772 U.S. lives.
Speaking to reporters in Baghdad on Wednesday, al-Rubaie acknowledged disappointment by some American lawmakers at what they saw as the slow pace of progress in Iraq. "Some of us get tired by the process, either because of the lack of achievement or the personal interests that the many sides have," al-Rubaie said.
"We're going through a tough time and we are facing huge problems, but our persistence is unlimited," he added.
