US-backed Iraqi forces arrested 15 suspected militants in a new security crackdown in Baquba, 65 km northeast of Baghdad, police said. The operation will continues throughout northeastern Diyala province, an area where Al Qaida still retains influence, they said. Meanwhile, a Katyusha rocket hit a storage unit in an oil refinery in Baghdad's southern Doura district, police said, causing a fire. Local guards managed to put it out.
In other security developments elsewhere in Iraq on Saturday, gunmen shot dead an off-duty policewoman in a market in central Mosul, 390 km north of Baghdad, police said.