Baqouba, Iraq – Iraqi insurgents launched a series of deadly attacks on police and local army units in and around Baqouba on Saturday, killing at least 19 Iraqi security force members around the city about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.
Meanwhile, in the northern city of Tal Afar, Iraqi and U.S. forces remained locked in an intense battle with insurgents. Gunmen also launched attacks in several other Iraqi cities with large Sunni populations, including Kirkuk and Samarra.
At least 26 people across Iraq were killed in the violence Saturday.
Baquba, the capital of the diverse Diyala Province, has been the object of U.S. efforts to ease sectarian tensions in advance of Iraq’s October constitutional referendum.
U.S. officials fear Sunni anger over the recently unveiled draft Constitution might fuel insurgent activity in places like Diyala, home to Sunni Arabs, Shiites and Kurds alike.
The Sunni Arabs, who controlled the government under Saddam Hussein, have seen power shift to Shiites and Kurds, who make up a majority of the Iraqi population.
In recent weeks, U.S. Army units have fortified multiple Iraqi checkpoints around Baquba to help Iraqi forces assume greater responsibility for combating the stubborn Sunni-supported insurgency there.
But Saturday’s attacks appeared to underscore the difficult task confronting U.S. and Iraqi authorities.
Gunmen early Saturday morning killed four soldiers at an Iraqi army checkpoint near Adhaim, about 19 miles north of Baquba, according to Iraqi police.
At noon, police said, gunmen attacked Iraqi police in Baquba’s Mualimin neighborhood, killing six. One witness said at least 30 attackers converged on the police from different directions and quickly overwhelmed them.
Later in the day, insurgents armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades killed nine in an attack on a joint Iraqi police and army checkpoint in Buhriz, just south of Baquba.
Several Army officers recently expressed frustration that Iraqi army and police units are not properly manning their checkpoints in the Baquba area, which although less violent than cities in heart of the so-called Sunni Triangle, remains a hotbed of insurgent activity.
