Baghdad - Iraqi forces have foiled an al-Qaeda plot to seize
control of the city of Tikrit, security officials said Monday, while
a Polish soldier was reportedly killed in a separate incident in
Diwaniyah.
The al-Qaeda in Iraq terrorist network was planning to attack
numerous targets in central Tikrit, 175 kilometres north of Baghdad
and the capital of Salahaddin province, in order to control the city
and link it to the so-called Islamic State of Iraq, an al-Qaeda
affiliate, according to the officials.
The plan involved assaulting the relatively stable city from the
south, the west and the east, avoiding the northern part where US
troops are based in a former air force facility, the source added.
Director of the Salahaddin National Security Centre Colonel
Jasssem Hussein Mohammed said that Iraqi security forces had managed
to raid the militants' dens, arresting dozens of gunmen, killing
scores of others and confiscating large amounts of explosives and
weapons.
Among those killed were Saudi national Abu Obada, who headed al-
Qaeda in the north Tigris area, and Ali Youssif al-Jabouri, the mufti
of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq, said Major Ahmed Sobhi of the
Salahaddin police command anti-terrorism unit.
Al-Jabouri was responsible for a fatwa (a religious judgment) that
stipulated the killing of at least 100 residents of Duluiyah for
resisting al-Qaeda militants.
Meanwhile, Iraqi independent Sharkiya TV reported Monday that a
Polish soldier, from the Multi-National Forces in Iraq, was shot dead
by a sniper in Diwaniyah, 200 kilometres south of Baghdad.
No further details were immediately available.
In the Kazimiya district of northern Baghdad, a roadside bomb went
off Monday morning on a main road, injuring 15 people, some
seriously, an Iraqi police source said.
Most of the victims were in buses on their way to work, media
reports said. Two civilian cars were damaged in the attack.
Security forces sealed off the area, while ambulances rushed the
victims to a nearby hospital.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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