A truck bomb detonated by remote control killed seven people on Sunday, including six policemen and a member of a local group of Sunni volunteers who turned against al Qaeda, police said. The truck was parked along the side of a road in Duluiyah, some 45 miles north of Baghdad, and exploded as police entered the vehicle to search it, said police Col. Mohammed Khalid.
In other violence, gunmen killed the head of Basra's intelligence department Saturday night in a drive-by shooting in Baghdad, local police said, according to the AP. Brig. Gen. Jabar Musaid, who played a leading role in the recent government crackdown against Shiite gunmen in Basra, was visiting relatives in a neighborhood controlled by militiamen loyal radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in the eastern part of the city.
Meanwhile, a relative of the prime minister was killed early Friday in a raid on Hindiyah, about 12 miles east of Karbala, local officials said. Ali Abdul-Hussein, said to be a cousin of Nuri al-Maliki, was shot dead in a raid conducted by 60 U.S. soldiers supported by four helicopters and a fighter jet, provincial police chief, Raed Shakir, said.
Officials close to the prime minister said the killing enraged al-Maliki, who has been locked in negotiations in recent months over a long-term security agreement with the United States. Karbala Gov. Aqil al-Khuzaie said in a statement Saturday that the raid was a violation of an agreement signed with the U.S. last year that transferred Karbala to the control of Iraqi security forces.
© 2008 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
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