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19 Iraqi police, soldiers die in Baquba attacks

Posted on: Saturday, 3 September 2005, 09:02 CDT

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.

Source: REUTERS

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