Policemen free hostage in Diala

DIALA / IraqiNews.com: Diala policemen freed a man taken hostage during a search raid in the district of Baaquba on Monday, the province’s police chief said. “Security forces in Diala, in a search raid near the area of Jabinat, central Baaquba, liberated a hostage who had been reported kidnapped three days ago,” Brig. Abdelhussein al-Shimari told IraqiNews.com. Shimari did not elaborate on the identity of the kidnappers or further details about the operation. Diala province, a mix of Sunnis and Shiites, extends to the northeast of Baghdad as far as the Iranian borders. 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