Gunmen have killed 12 Iraqi policemen and
soldiers while a truck bomb hit a southern
port. In Saturday’s deadliest attack, gunmen
opened fire on an army post in the town of
Madain, just southeast of Baghdad, in a pre-
dawn strike that left five soldiers dead and
three others wounded, police and a medical
source said. Among the dead was a lieutenant colonel.
The gunmen fled after the attack, and
security forces, who cordoned off the
scene, launched a manhunt. North of Baghdad, militants shot dead four
police who were buying ice near the city of
Tikrit. Security forces often purchase large blocks
of ice to distribute to nearby checkpoints in
order to cope with Iraq’s sweltering summer
heat. In another attack north of the capital,
gunmen killed three soldiers in the restive
Muqdadiyah area of Diyala province. And in the far south, a truck rigged with
explosives blew up in the parking lot of the
port of Umm Qasr,
wounding three people and damaging a
docked ship and several nearby trucks. The port’s operations were not affected,
however, a spokesman said. No group immediately claimed
responsibility for the attacks, but Sunni
militants linked to al-Qaeda and opposed to
the Shi’ite-led government frequently carry
out attacks against security forces. Attacks have killed more than 3480 people
since the beginning of 2013, according to
figures compiled by AFP. Interior ministry spokesman Brigadier
General Saad Maan said on Saturday that
security forces had killed a top al-Qaeda
militant in Tikrit and detained two of his
aides.
He did not identify the man who was killed.
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