Iraqi tribal leader among 10 killed in Tikrit and Mosul (Roundup)

Mar 4, 2009, 15:24 GMT

Baghdad - A Sunni tribal leader and his family were among ten Iraqis killed in three separate incidents in the northern cities of Mosul and Tikrit on Wednesday.

Al-Qaeda militants fatally shot Sheikh Ziab Ahmed Ziara, his wife and son near their home in the northern Iraqi city of Tikrit, local police said.

A source in Tikrit's police force speaking on condition of anonymity told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa suggested that the attack was an act of revenge.

The sheikh was leader of the al-Ahbab tribe in Balad district and had strong connections with the Awakening Councils, which work with US forces to fight al-Qaeda in Iraq. Al-Qaeda militants had previously killed three other members of the Sheikh's family.

The attack in Tikrit was followed by two bombings that killed a total of six members of the Iraqi security forces near the northern city of Mosul, some 400 kilometres north of Baghdad, police there said.

One bombing to place late Wednesday afternoon, when four policemen died and 26 other people were injured near a police checkpoint after a man detonated an explosives-packed car.

A source in the Mosul police force, also speaking on condition of anonymity, told dpa that the attack took place in the Zanjili district west of Mosul.

The bomber also died in the attack, he said, without giving further details.

The second bombing earlier Wednesday left two soldiers dead and a third wounded near an Iraqi army patrol, police in Mosul told dpa.

Iraqi security forces in late February launched a push to arrest suspected militants in Mosul and its environs in an attempt to pacify the region, which remains one of Iraq's most prone to violence.