Suspected al-Qaeda militants killed five Iraqi soldiers in a brazen dawn attack yesterday at a western Baghdad checkpoint and planted the terror group’s black banner before fleeing the scene, officials said.
The attackers arrived in three cars and used pistols fitted with silencers in the assault in the mainly Sunni Mansour district, police and hospital officials said. The assailants, according to the officials, then planted the al-Qaeda banner on a pole next to the checkpoint.
It was the second time in a week that al-Qaeda’s flag has appeared at the scene of an attack.
Security forces sealed off the area and searched for the attackers. They carried out extensive car searches and identity checks on passengers as well as pedestrians in the area, officials said.
Also yesterday, an Iraqi soldier and a policeman were killed and nine people were wounded in other attacks across Baghdad.
Police officials said a roadside bomb targeting an army patrol in Sadr City killed one soldier and wounded seven — four soldiers and three bystanders.
In Ghadir district, a traffic policeman was killed when a bomb attached to his motorbike went off. A similar bomb attached to the car of a police major went off in Hurriyah neighborhood, seriously wounding him. And in the nearby Ghazaliyah neighborhood, gunmen in a speeding car opened fire on a police checkpoint, wounding one policeman, police officials said.
Meanwhile, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told state TV late on Monday that he was prepared to “suspend” his candidacy for a second, four-year term in office, but that doing so would not bring about a breakthrough.
Appearing at times angry when lashing out at his critics, al-Maliki said he was a political target for naysayers because he refuses to sugarcoat Iraq’s problems.
“I do not sweet talk,” he said in the hour-long interview, taped earlier. “They say they want a weak prime minister. The country is facing a lot of problems and if the prime minister is not strong, then the country will crumble, and sectarianism and warlords will return.”
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