By Xinhua
Baghdad : Gunmen ambushed an Iraqi army convoy in the volatile Diyala province Tuesday, killing five soldiers and wounding 16, an interior ministry source said.
"Dozens of gunmen at dawn attacked a military convoy carrying Kurdish soldiers (named Peshmerga) near the town of Hibhib, 50 km northeast of Baghdad," the source said.
The attackers, using machine-guns and rocket propelled grenade launchers, also destroyed five vehicles.
The Peshmerga convoy was en route to Baghdad from the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq to take part in the crackdown of insurgency and violence in the capital, the source added.
Some of the Peshmerga militants, Kurdish militia who fought Saddam's army, have become part of the Iraqi army after the collapse of Saddam's regime.