Two Iraqi soldiers were killed in a roadside bomb explosion and a leader of anti-Qaida group was kidnapped by unknown gunmen in the eastern Iraqi province of Diyala on Monday, a provincial police source said.
"A roadside bomb struck an Iraqi army patrol in the al-Naqeeb village, 7 km south of the provincial capital Baquba, killing two soldiers and wounding four others," the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
One of the patrol's vehicles was destroyed by the blast, the source said.
In a separate incident, unknown gunmen stormed before dawn the house of Ra'ad Jasim, leader of Awakening Council group in the town of al-Mansouriyah, some 90 km northeast of Baghdad, and kidnapped him, the source said.
The Awakening Council groups are U.S.-backed armed groups, who fight the al-Qaida network after the latter exercised indiscriminate killings against both Shiite and Sunni Muslim communities.
The incidents came as U.S. troops and Iraqi security forces are conducting major offensive against extremist militiamen in Diyala which stretches from the eastern edges of Baghdad to the Iranian border.
Source:Xinhua
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