Iraq al-Qaeda militant kills self, family during raid

An alleged Al-Qaeda member blew up his house in Iraq’s Diyala province during a raid Monday, killing himself and four family members, while five people died in other attacks, security sources said.Just before Iraqi soldiers entered the home “of an Al-Qaeda member in Saadiyah, he blew up the house and killed himself, his wife, and three children,” who were between 5 and 15 years old, Iraqi army First Lieutenant Abbas al-Tamimi said. The suspected Al-Qaeda member, Hussein Abdul-Sattar, destroyed the house northeast of Baqouba, the capital of Diyala in central Iraq, about noon (0900 GMT), Tamimi said. Iraqi army Major Ahmad al-Juburi confirmed that “the terrorist was killed with his family, which consisted of his wife and his children.” Juburi said that no soldiers were wounded as they had not yet entered the garden of the house when it was blown up. Gunmen meanwhile shot dead five people in two other attacks Monday. In the deadliest attack, gunmen killed four young people who worked in a date palm orchard in Rashidiya, northeast of Baghdad, and then fled, an Interior Ministry official said. Three other people were wounded in the attack, the official said on condition of anonymity. An official in the Sheikh Dari hospital in the area confirmed the toll. Meanwhile, a policeman who was riding a motorcycle was shot dead in Tuz Khormatu, 175 kilometers north of Baghdad, a police colonel said. Violence in Iraq has fallen sharply from a peak of 2006 and 2007.