Violence rages on in Iraq

BAGHDAD – Bombers struck a police patrol in central Baghdad yesterday as Iraq’s embattled government celebrated the arrest of an alleged terror kingpin accused of triggering a sectarian war.

Meanwhile, a war of words continued between the Iraqi government and Kurdish leaders, who have refused to fly the national flag in their autonomous region. Interior ministry spokesman Brigadier General Abdelkarim Khalaf told AFP that three officers were critically wounded in the attack in Al-Wabhiq Square in the largely Shiite and Christian district of Karrada.Violence also continued just north of the capital in Diyala province, which is in the grip of a vicious turf-war between rival Sunni and Shiite factions.At least one civilian was shot dead and five more wounded, police said.The violence, which was low-key by Iraq’s bloody standards, followed the arrest of a man described by Iraqi officials as the number two figure in the Sunni militant movement Al-Qaeda in Iraq.”Deliberate intelligence work both by Iraqi forces as well as multinational forces has dealt a very severe blow to the Al-Qaeda organisation in Iraq.And it is also significant because this man is believed to have been responsible for the attack on the shrines in Samarra, which led to the sectarian violence that we have seen,” he said.In February, extremists demolished the golden dome of a revered Shiite shrine, triggering a series of sectarian reprisals which have pushed Iraq to the brink of all-out civil war.Two US marines died on Sunday after “enemy action” in the western province of Al-Anbar, a bastion of the Sunni insurgency, the military said.Nampa-APInterior ministry spokesman Brigadier General Abdelkarim Khalaf told AFP that three officers were critically wounded in the attack in Al-Wabhiq Square in the largely Shiite and Christian district of Karrada.Violence also continued just north of the capital in Diyala province, which is in the grip of a vicious turf-war between rival Sunni and Shiite factions.At least one civilian was shot dead and five more wounded, police said.The violence, which was low-key by Iraq’s bloody standards, followed the arrest of a man described by Iraqi officials as the number two figure in the Sunni militant movement Al-Qaeda in Iraq.”Deliberate intelligence work both by Iraqi forces as well as multinational forces has dealt a very severe blow to the Al-Qaeda organisation in Iraq.And it is also significant because this man is believed to have been responsible for the attack on the shrines in Samarra, which led to the sectarian violence that we have seen,” he said.In February, extremists demolished the golden dome of a revered Shiite shrine, triggering a series of sectarian reprisals which have pushed Iraq to the brink of all-out civil war.Two US marines died on Sunday after “enemy action” in the western province of Al-Anbar, a bastion of the Sunni insurgency, the military said.Nampa-AP