2 killed in northern Iraq clashes

A policeman and a gunman were killed in clashes between Iraqi security forces and militants following wounding a senior police officer in a town in Nineveh province, a provincial police source said Saturday.

Sporadic clashes erupted at the village of Shkhier outside the town of Qaiyara, some 40 km south of the provincial capital city of Mosul, following a gunfire attack by militants on the convoy of Colonel Eid al-Namis, police chief of the town, who survived the attack with serious wounds, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Two of Namis bodyguards were also wounded by the morning attack on the convoy in the village which considered one of main insurgents' strongholds in the province, the source said.

Iraqi security forces immediately cordoned off the area around the village and until the afternoon hours the troops continue search operations and frequently traded fire with the militants, the source added.

"So far, the sporadic clashes by the search operations resulted in the killing of a policeman and the wounding of a police officer, while a militant was killed and another wounded," he said.

Mosul, some 400 km north of Baghdad, has been a stronghold of insurgent groups and al-Qaida fighters in the war-torn country.

Nineveh province has been the scene of major security crackdowns by U.S. troops and Iraqi security forces to uproot the insurgency which erupted shortly after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

Sporadic attacks still common in the Iraqi cities more than four months after the country held its landmark parliamentary election which is widely expected to shape the political landscape of the war-torn country.

Source:Xinhua