11 Iraqi security personnel killed in Baghdad ambush

Gunmen killed 11 Iraqi security personnel in an ambush today in Baghdad’s deadly western suburbs.

Capt. Qassim Hussein said a security convoy of four-wheel-drive vehicles was attacked as it drove through Baghdad’s Jami’a district, sparking a fierce gun battle between heavily armed insurgents and security personnel wearing civilian clothes.

Hussein said 11 security personnel were killed, while another security worker and a civilian were wounded.

Also, a Shiite Muslim cleric was killed in a Baghdad drive-by shooting while leaving his mosque.

Sheikh Shakir Hiriz al-Yasiri, 32, was killed at about 7.30pm local time yesterday as he stepped out of a mosque where he preached in eastern Baghdad’s Ma’amil district, said Capt. Mahir Hamad Musa.

Religious leaders have been routinely targeted in Iraq’s incessant conflict which has taken on worrying sectarian and religious overtones.