An Iraqi military intelligence officer was kiiled in a drive-by shooting on Saturday south of Baghdad, police said. Gunmen attacked 1st Lt. Hussein Jabir at 7:30 a.m. as he was leaving his home in downtown Diwaniyah, 80 miles south of Baghdad, police said, according to the AP.
Also Saturday, U.S.-led forces killed one person and detained nine other suspects in a raid in Ramadi, west of Baghdad, the U.S. military said. "Intelligence reports indicated terrorists with ties to the al-Qaeda in Iraq network were operating in the targeted building," the military said in a statement.
Another 10 Iraqis have died in violence, including six people during clashes between police and fighters loyal to Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr. The fighting erupted after the main weekly Muslim prayers in the mainly Shiite southern city of Samawa on Friday and continued Saturday, police sources said.
"Since last night, the hospital has received six dead -- five policemen and one civilian -- and 15 wounded, including seven policeman," said Lieutenant Ahmed Hadi, in charge of security at Samawa hospital.
According to AFP, two policemen were killed when a mortar round crashed into the impoverished town's police headquarters on Saturday. The others died from gunshot wounds during the clashes, Hadi said. Amid the violence, fighters from two influential clans seized an office of the Sadr movement in downtown Samawa "to avenge the death" of two policemen from their tribes, a police source said.
The source said they were also hunting down fighters from the Mahdi Army, a large Shiite group loyal to Sadr. Another four people were killed in a series of shootings and bombings in the cities of Baquba and Kirkuk.
