By DPA
Baghdad : In an upsurge of terror-linked violence in Baquba city, some 60 km northeast of the Iraqi capital, six Iraqis, including soldiers and policemen, were killed and nine injured Tuesday, military and medical sources said.
An explosive charge went off as Iraqi and US forces were inspecting the city’s Hashimiyat district, killing four Iraqi soldiers and injuring and seven others, Iraqi military sources said.
A policeman and a civilian were killed and two others wounded in a blast in Mandali area, followed by an exchange of fire between the police and gunmen, medical sources said.
Separately in east Baquba, three bodies were found with signs of torture and bullets on them in Abu Saida village, forensic sources said.
Diyala province, of which Baquba is the capital, has recently witnessed recurrent insurgency related violence. The joint Iraqi-US forces had launched Operation Arrowhead Ripper in the province in June in a bid to rid Baquba and other cities of militants.
Meanwhile, US forces killed a wanted Al Qaeda cell leader, his wife and one-year-old child in a raid in Mosul, the independent Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency reported Tuesday, quoting a Nineveh police official.
The US military did not comment on the incident.
Mosul, the capital of Nineveh province, is about 400 km north of the capital Baghdad.
In a related development, a key Al Qaeda figure was killed in a US helicopter strike on the city of Samarra in Iraq’s northern Salahaddin province, a security source said Tuesday.
The source said security forces were close to declaring the end of Al Qaeda in the province of Salahaddin as a result of strikes by US and Iraqi troops and the Islamic Army of Iraq.