Iraqi forces attacked the office of the governor of Diyala province early on Tuesday, killing the governor's secretary and triggering clashes before withdrawing. Governor Raad Rasheed Mulla Jawad told Reuters a counter-terrorism unit had stormed his office at 2:30 a.m., killing secretary Abbas Ali Hmoud, and arresting a member of the provincial council.
"The body of the martyr will stay in the building until the killers are captured," the governor was quoted as saying. The identity of the force that staged the assault was not immediately clear. Its members clashed with police and Iraqi army units in the provincial capital Baquba before withdrawing.
A source in the governor's office said four policemen and two civilians were injured in the clashes, before the unit was apparently permitted to withdraw.
The governor himself survived a bomb blast on his convoy last week.
