A six-year-old child was shot dead and four Iraqi soldiers were wounded in two attacks in the volatile province of Diyala, which witnesses a month-long security operation, a local security source said on Saturday.

Unknown armed men opened fire on the child near his house in a village near the city of Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The police is investigating the motive behind the murder, although the police believe that it could be that his father is a member of the Awakening Council group, which fights Qaida militants in the village, the source said.

In separate incident, four Iraqi soldiers were injured when a roadside bomb struck their vehicle while patrolling an area near the town of Jalawlaa, some 120 km northeast of Baghdad, he said.

Violence persists in the province after a nearly a month of ongoing massive offensive by U.S.-backed Iraqi security forces.

So far, the offensive resulted in the detaining of 409 suspected insurgent, the source said.

During the operation, the troops seized 64 caches of weapons and explosive charges and defused 51 explosive charges, the source added.

Early in the month, more than 40,000 of Iraqi security forces, including anti-Qaida paramilitary groups, have launched an offensive aimed at chasing militant groups and criminal gangs.

The current offensive represents the second page of the first operation code-named "Glad Tidings" which began since last year.

Diyala, including its capital city of Baquba, has long been the hotbed of insurgency since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Source:Xinhua