BAGHDAD — Three roadside bombs planted in succession struck a police convoy in one of Iraq’s most dangerous provinces Sunday, killing five policemen.
In Baghdad, the leader of a Sunni group allied with the U.S. died when his booby- trapped car exploded.
The bombs planted along a main thoroughfare targeted a police convoy in Jalawla, 60 miles north of Baghdad, said Ibrahim Bajilan, head of the provincial council of Diyala. The province, northeast of Baghdad and bordering Iran, remains a major security challenge for the U.S.-backed Iraqi government, even as violence drops in other parts of the country.
On Saturday night, a bomb killed the leader of a U.S.-backed, Sunni armed group in the al-Furat neighborhood of western Baghdad.
The bomb exploded in the car of Fuad Ali Hussein, killing him as well as his deputy and two bodyguards. Hussein was the head of a neighborhood Awakening Council — a term describing Sunni Arab insurgents and tribesmen who have turned against al-Qaeda in Iraq and formed alliances with the United States.
In political developments, Iraq’s parliament voted to lift the immunity of a Sunni Arab lawmaker who visited Israel to attend a counterterrorism conference this month. Mithal al-Alusi also was barred from traveling outside Iraq or attending parliamentary sessions.
Osama al-Nujeifi, a Sunni Arab lawmaker, and Shiite lawmaker Haider al-Ibadi said al-Alusi’s trip was illegal and a humiliation for Iraqis who see Israel as a historic enemy.
Also Sunday, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki formed a committee to investigate the killing of four employees of the Iraqi television network Al-Sharqiya as they filmed an episode on the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which began two weeks ago.
The Iraqi government has repeatedly accused Al-Sharqiya of bias, sensationalism and spreading anti-government propaganda.
Also Sunday, the U.S. military said two American soldiers died of causes unrelated to combat.
