8 suspected al-Qaeda gunmen detained in Babel

BABEL / IraqiNews.com: Iraqi army forces on Friday arrested eight suspected al-Qaeda gunmen in north of Babel province, an army source said. “The forces arrested eight suspected al-Qaeda gunmen and closed Abdullah bin Zaid mosque in al-Asriya village region in al-Askandariya district, north of Hilla, after finding a number of bombs and weapons inside it,” the source told IraqiNews.com. “They also waged a crackdown operation in a number of houses around the mosque,” he noted. Babel, a Shiite province that lies 100 km south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, has an area of 6,468 square kilometers (2,497.3 sq mi), with an estimated population of 1,385,783 people in 2003. The provincial capital is the town of al-Hilla. The ancient ruins of Babylon ( Babil , after which the region is named) are also in the province. SH (P) 1