Iraqi officials said a mortar attack north of Baghdad has killed 10 members of a U.S.-allied Sunni group that has joined forces with the Americans against al-Qaeda in Iraq. According to the AP, Maj. Mohammed Thawra said some 10 mortar shells slammed into the group's headquarters and a checkpoint late Sunday in Udaim, a Sunni town 70 miles north of Baghdad.
Thawra, an Iraqi army battalion commander in Udaim, said Monday that 24 members of the so-called awakening council also were wounded in the attack.
Meanwhile, Iraq's prime minister vowed to maintain law and order in the southern city of Amara on Monday, days after a security crackdown that the movement of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said unfairly targeted them. Iraqi forces have taken control of Amara and the surrounding province of Maysan, seizing heavy weapons and arresting wanted men in an operation aimed at stamping government authority on an area where Shi'ite militias had been influential.
According to Reuters, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki visited Amara on Monday. "Military forces will not withdraw from (Amara) until we make sure the criminals and killers can never come back again," Maliki told local tribal leaders in a speech. "We will not stop using force against those who revolt against the will of the nation."
© 2008 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
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