3 gunmen planting IED arrested

DIALA / IraqiNews.com: Policemen in Diala province captured three gunmen who were planting an improvised explosive device (IED) near a village south of al-Saadiya, the district chief said on Monday. “Security forces arrested the gunmen while they were trying to plant an IED in the village of al-Husariya, south of al-Saadiya, (35 km) southwest of Khanaqin district,” Sheikh Ahmed al-Zarkoushi told IraqiNews.com. “The gunmen are under investigative custody for information about the motives and the organization to which they belong,” Zarkoushi said. Diala, 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). 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. Later on, the Iraqi security forces had launched a wide-scale security campaign in Diala province. The operation, codenamed Bashaer al-Kheir (Promise of Good), is aimed at tracking down members of al-Qaeda network in Diala, Iraq’s most restive city, after the armed group lost its strongholds in the western Iraq predominantly Sunni province of al-Anbar, where tribesmen fought its members and flushed them out of the city.   AmR (S) 1