Officer killed, soldier injured while defusing bomb in Diala

DIALA / IraqiNews.com: An Iraqi army officer was killed and a soldier was injured on Thursday while an attempt to defuse a bomb in Diala, a local official said. “An Iraqi army officer was killed and a soldier was injured when a bomb exploded while trying to defuse it near al-Saadiya district garage in northeast of Diala,” Aamer Refaat, member of the security committee of the Diala provincial council, told IraqiNews.com. Diala province, a mix of Sunnis and Shiites, extends to the northeast of Baghdad as far as the Iranian border. Its capital is Baaquba, 57 km northeast of Baghdad. It covers an area of 17,685 square kilometers (6,828 sq mi). A large portion of the province is drained by the Diala River, a major tributary of the Tigris. Because of its proximity to two major sources of water, Diala’s main industry is agriculture, primarily dates grown in large Date Palm groves. It is also recognized as the orange capital of the Middle East. In January 2008 Operation Phantom Phoenix was launched in an attempt to eradicate the remnants of al-Qaeda network following the Diala province campaign between 2006 and 2007. SH (P) 1