Global General

7 soldiers killed in Iraq's Diyala bombings

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-08-11 15:44

BAQUBA, Iraq -- Seven soldiers were killed and seven others injured in two overnight bomb attacks, including a house bomb explosion, in the eastern province of Diyala, a provincial police source said Wednesday.

Six soldiers were killed and four others wounded when they stormed a booby-trapped house in the town of Sa'diyah, north of Diyala's capital city of Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

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The soldiers moved to the house depending on false information saying that a gang was keeping a hostage in the house, the source said.

Separately, a roadside bomb went off after midnight near an Iraqi army patrol in the city of Mandely, some 90 km east of Baquba, killing one soldier and wounding three others, the source said.

A military vehicle was badly damaged by the blast in the city located near the Iraqi-Iranian border, the source added.

Diyala province, which stretches from the eastern edges of Baghdad to the Iranian border east of the country, has long been a stronghold for al-Qaida militants and other insurgent groups since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 despite repeated US and Iraqi military operations against them.