BAGHDAD — Dozens of gunmen overran a Shiite village north of Baghdad on Saturday, killing at least 20 people, police said, the latest in a recent spike in attacks in Diyala province, where the U.S. military is rotating some troops out and moving others in.
Meanwhile, the Turkish military claimed it had attacked as many as 60 Kurdish guerrillas inside Iraq, saying that it inflicted “significant losses.” And in Baghdad, top Sunni lawmakers staged a walkout of Saturday’s parliamentary session to protest the government’s treatment of their leader, Adnan al-Dulaimi, who said he had been placed under house arrest Friday.
U.S. and Iraqi authorities raided Dulaimi’s office compound Thursday and Friday, detaining dozens of employees and his son, and alleging that one of Dulaimi’s guards held the keys to a vehicle rigged with explosives discovered nearby.
All three developments underscored the instability that persists in Iraq even as violence has decreased.
The assault on Duwaili village, 45 miles north of Baghdad, began with a barrage of mortars, police said. Gangs of suspected members of the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq entered the village, opening fire on civilians and torching homes, said Maj. Gen. Abdul Karim al-Rubaiee, a police commander in Diyala province. The village, he said, was also attacked several months ago.
Muhammad Salman al-Zaidi 54, a tribal elder, said his village was struck again because the U.S. military had recently withdrawn soldiers from the nearby town of Muqdadiyah. Iraqi security forces, he added, were not ready to take over responsibility for the area’s security.
Last week, a suicide bomber attacked a police checkpoint in Diyala’s capital, Baqubah, killing seven people, including five policemen. Another suicide bomber blew herself up near a U.S. patrol, injuring seven U.S. soldiers and five Iraqi civilians. On Nov. 18, a suicide bomber killed three U.S. soldiers.
Col. Ali Ismail Fattah, a senior police commander, said violence has escalated northeast of Baqubah because al-Qaeda in Iraq insurgents have sensed an opportunity as U.S. troops pull out.
“I do not know why they withdrew the American brigade at this time,” he said. “This showed that Iraqi forces are not ready yet to fight the terrorism alone by themselves.”
U.S. military officials said they expect al-Qaeda in Iraq to fight back.
In Turkey, the military reported that its soldiers had crossed into Iraq and conducted an “intensified operation” against guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.
“The terrorist group suffered significant losses as a result of the operation,” the statement said.
U.S. military officials said they were not aware of such a Turkish attack.
