By Xinhua,
Tikrit, Iraq : Iraqi security forces raided a village in Salahudin province and killed four al-Qaida leaders, a provincial police officer said on Tuesday.
The troops on Monday afternoon raided the village of al-Salam, one of al-Qaida militants’ redoubts located to the west of the town of Beiji, some 200 km north of Baghdad, Col. Hassan Ahmed told Xinhua.
During the operation, the troops fought gunmen and killed four of them, he said, adding that the four were believed to be al-Qaida leaders, one of them identified as Muhammad Faiyaadh, a minister of the self-styled Islamic State of Iraq.
Two Iraqi policemen were also wounded by the clashes, he added.
The operation came after the security forces received intelligence reports indicating that Sabbar al-Qaisi, head of the main hospital in the capital city of Tikrit, and his assistant, who have been kidnapped two weeks ago were held in the village, Ahmed said.
Qaisi and his assistant, however, were not found in the targeted al-Qaida haven, he said.
The raid in Salahudin came as the U.S. and Iraqi security forces claimed substantial successes in their ongoing offensive in the neighboring northern province of Nineveh to uproot al-Qaida militants from their latest strongholds in Iraq.