Iraqi officer, driver killed in Baghdad

02 January, 2011 11:44

A high-ranking police officer and his driver have been killed in Baghdad to become the first victims of Iraq’s ongoing violence on the first day of 2011.

Colonel Ihsan Ali from Baghdad’s Rusafa police and his driver were killed on Saturday, when a group of armed men Â opened fire on them, Aswat al-Iraq news agency quoted a security source as saying on condition of anonymity.

The incident reportedly took place on Mohammed al-Qassim highway, near the Iraqi Finance Ministry in central Baghdad.

Meanwhile, two mortar shells landed near two military camps close to Fallujah — the largest city in Iraq’s western province of Anbar.

One of the shells targeted a police center in the Albu-Jassim area east of the city. The ensuing explosion caused material damage to the premises, but did not leave any casualties. The other hit the headquarters of an emergency battalion in Garma village, also east of Fallujah.

On Friday, an Iraqi soldier died of the injuries he had sustained the day before when his patrol came under a shooting attack in the town of Talaafar in the troubled northern province of Nineveh.

The latest attacks have raised concerns about a fresh wave of attacks aimed at police and security forces in the country, which has been seriously plagued by al-Qaeda-linked extremists.

Some Iraqi officials believe the terrorists are funded by extremist elements in Saudi Arabia.