Fresh violence erupted in Iraq Monday as a Salvation Front member, an academic, a policeman and two civilians were killed in separate incidents, while clashes between security forces and militants claimed more lives on both sides, according to AP. In an act of violence reported by Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency, referring to local authorities, a group of unknown gunmen shot dead Sheikh Atallah Iskandar Habib, a member of the pro- government Kirkuk Salvation Front, and his driver. The gunmen set their bodies on fire at the scene of the attack in southern al-Huweija, a mainly Sunni Arab district. The salvation fronts across Iraq, also known as Awakening Councils, are composed of armed fighters who combat al-Qaeda- affiliated militants in coordination with multinational forces. In the multi-ethnic city of Kirkuk, more than 6,000 local residents have recently joined the front. Also in Kirkuk, police sources told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that four bodies of Iraqi soldiers kidnapped by armed groups had been found. Gunmen had shot them and mutilated their bodies, according to the source. As five soldiers had been kidnapped in total, it remained unclear what happened to the fifth soldier. Separately, a lecturer at Basra University in southern Iraq was ambushed and shot dead near his home by an unidentified armed group earlier Monday. In a village near Baquba, 60 kilometres north of Baghdad, a civilian was killed by gunfire while another was killed in a mortar shelling, whose source remains unknown. A policeman was also killed and two were wounded in an attack on their patrol in a nearby town. In another development, four policemen were reported killed and two wounded during clashes that also left seven gunmen dead in southeastern Mosul, 400 kilometres north of Baghdad, local police sources told VOI. Two militants, meanwhile, were gunned down during similar clashes in Beyji, 200 kilometres north of Baghdad. In other news, Hashim Jalloub, the former chief of the Karbala intelligence service escaped from the Rasafa prison in Baghdad a month after he was arrested, a police official said on Monday. Jalloub escaped on Sunday night, according to VOI, but it was not clear how. "Investigations are still going on and a number of officers were arrested after the incident," Karbala police director, Raed Shakir Jawdat, said. Jalloub was arrested in Karbala on charges of "terrorism" after the alleged attempted murder of a police director in a Baghdad prison. He had been sent to Baghdad to investigate the director and refer him to a court if necessary. Reportedly, "intelligence tips" have indicated Jalloub's involvement in "a network that aims at liquidating some officials and politicians in the city," including Jawdat himself.
