Iraqi Army Officer, Militants Killed İn Diyala Violence

An Iraqi army officer has been killed on Sunday along with nine militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group in the northern Diyala province, according to the Iraqi military and security officials.



According to a security source, a bombing targeted a vehicle boarded by a high-ranking Iraqi army officer on Sunday morning, leaving him dead.



Meanwhile, security forces killed a key ISIL figure in the north of provincial capital Baqubah with intelligence help, another security official said.



Elsewhere in the province, a joint army-police operation left eight ISIL militants dead over the past 48 hours in a village northeast of Baqubah, Diyala police spokesman Ghalib Attiya said in a press statement Sunday.



"[Government] forces carried out a two-day successful operation in al-Mekheisa village, 30km northeast of [provincial capital] Baqubah, and calm has been restored in the village," Attiya said.



On Tuesday, twelve people were killed in al-Mekheisa clashes between Sunni villagers and militants, amid frequent clashes between ISIL gunmen and security forces in the villages on the eastern outskirts of Baqubah.



For months, the Iraqi government has been battling ISIL – said by authorities to be linked to al-Qaeda.



ISIL militants remain in control of Fallujah and parts of Ramadi in the western Anbar province despite an ongoing large-scale military operation launched by government forces since December in the restive province to flush out the militants.



The ISIL has yet to claim responsibility for the university assail.



The violence spread over to Baghdad, which has seen a string of bombings recently amid a general militancy uptick across Iraq.



Observers warn that the violence could negatively impact April 30 parliamentary polls in the country.



By Aref Youssef



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