Armed men launched a series of assaults Saturday in a province north of Baghdad, killing at least 20 Iraqi security forces, officials said. American and Iraq forces clashed with gunmen near the northern city of Tal Afar.
According to The AP, nine policemen were killed in a pair of shootouts in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, officials said. Six policemen and two troops were killed in another gunbattle in Buhriz, a suburb of Baqouba, officials said.
Three Iraqi soldiers were also killed Saturday when their convoy was attacked by gunmen near Adhaim, 30 miles north of Baqouba, police Col. Abdullah Qadir said.
Elsewhere, Iraqi civilians reported fighting late Friday in the outskirts of Tal Afar, a town 260 miles northwest of Baghdad.
Iraqi police clashed with gunmen late Friday at the Tal Afar bus station after receiving reports that the gunmen were storing weapons there, Iraqi Brig. Gen. Said Ahmed al-Jibouri said. One gunman was killed and six others were arrested.
In Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, four civilians were killed and 11 wounded when three mortar shells fired at an American facility missed the target and landed in a residential area, police said.
Elsewhere, gunmen abducted three Iraqi contractors after they left the U.S.-run Taji air base some 10 miles north of Baghdad, police Lt. Miqdad al-Khazragi said.
