19 Iraqi police, soldiers die in Baquba attacks

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Unknown gunmen killed 19 Iraqi police
and troops and wounded another 16 in three separate attacks
near Baquba, north of Baghdad, on Saturday, police and hospital
sources said.

The first attack came in the morning at an Iraqi army
checkpoint 30 km (around 20 miles) north of the mainly Sunni
Arab city, when four soldiers died. Later, four police officers
were killed by armed gunmen at a checkpoint in the center of
Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad.

The third attack was on a checkpoint manned jointly by
police and soldiers 4 km (2.5 miles) south of Baquba, in which
seven police and two soldiers were shot dead.

Police would not comment on whether the attacks were
carried out by the same people, or on whether they were revenge
attacks by Shi’ite Muslims following a stampede on a bridge in
Baghdad on Wednesday in which around 1,000 Shi’ite pilgrims
died.

Iraqi forces are battling a Sunni Arab insurgency against
the Shi’ite and Kurdish-led government in Baghdad. Tensions are
running high ahead of a referendum due by October 15 on a new
constitution for Iraq, which would define the status of these
three main Iraqi communities in the post-Saddam Hussein era.

Relations between Sunnis and Shi’ites have become even more
tense since the stampede. Many Shi’ites blame Sunni radicals
for firing rockets into the crowd and killing at least seven
ahead of the stampede.