Roadside bomb kills Iraqi policeman
A roadside bomb struck an Iraqi police patrol today, killing one officer and wounding four others and a civilian, a police official said.
The explosion took place at 9.10am (6.10am Irish time) near the al-Shaab Stadium in predominantly Shiite eastern Baghdad, said the official.
Meanwhile, the US military said that a joint raid this morning by Iraqi special forces and US troops that included helicopter gunships in Baghdad’s sprawling Sadr City led to the detention of seven Shiite extremists.
Sadr City is a teeming eastern slum in the Iraqi capital, controlled by the Mahdi Army militia loyal to Muqtada al-Sadr, a radical Shiite cleric known for his anti-American stance.
The troops were looking for a high-level Shiite suspect, when “several armed individuals were spotted on the rooftops of nearby buildings,” the military statement said.
US helicopter gunships were called in to “provide suppressive fire, allowing the forces to continue” their search, the military said.
After the detention of the seven militants, the joint mission was ambushed by several insurgents, the military added. An Iraqi soldier was wounded in the shooting but his injuries were not life threatening, the statement said.
Witnesses at the scene said one person was killed and five were wounded in the raid.
AP Television News footage showed scenes of a mangled car and a building peppered with shrapnel holes, its doors and windows blown out, in the Sadr City neighbourhood. Residents said 12 cars were also damaged.
Sabriah Kadom said her husband, Mansi Hafiz, was wounded in the stomach by shrapnel while sleeping outside in their garden in the warm summer night.
“He sleeps in the garden because of the hot whether,” Kadom said. “Helicopters opened fire on us and nearby houses, and on a parking lot in front of our house.”
Another woman, Makiyah Abdul Hassan, claimed that money and jewellery were stolen from her home by Iraqi soldiers taking part in the raid.
