BAGHDAD, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. military denied Tuesday that its
troops involved in the overnight raids on the government offices in the volatile
province of Diyala that killed the governor 's secretary and detained others.
"Our operational data show no coalition forces being part of this
operation," the military said in a statement.
Earlier, a local police source said that U.S. and Iraqi troops air-dropped
troops at about 2:00 a.m. (2300 GMT on Monday) on the buildings of the
provincial government offices with the aim of detaining the governor of Diyala
Raad Rasheed Mullah Jawad, a Shiite, who was not present at the scene during the
raid in the provincial capital of Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad.
The troops also clashed with the guards of the offices, killing Abbas Ali
Hmoud, the governor's secretary and wounding three policemen, the source said.
Hussein al-Zubaidi, head of the security committee of the provincial
council, a Sunni, was also detained during the raid, the source added.
Another force raided Diyala University and detained its chancellor, Nezar
al-Khafaji, after clashes with the guards resulted in the wounding of four
security members, he said.
A local source from the Iraqi Islamic party, a Sunni, confirmed to Xinhua
that the raid was conducted by the Iraqi 36th Brigade from Baghdad. The Brigade
soldiers fought fierce clashes with the guards of the provincial government
building for half an hour.
The source who spoke anonymously confirmed that the assaulting force was
affiliated to the interior ministry, adding that its soldiers killed the
governor's secretary, beat the members of the provincial council and confiscated
computers and mobile phones.
Last week, governor Jawad survived unhurt an assassination attempt when a
suicide bomber struck his convoy in central Baquba.
On June 20, Iraqi forces detained Rafie Abdul Jabbar, deputy governor of
Maysan province in south of Baghdad for charges of aiding militias loyal to
radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
The attacks came as U.S. troops and Iraqi security forces are conducting
major offensive against extremist Sunni and Shiite militiamen in Diyala which
stretches from the eastern edges of Baghdad to the Iranian border.