One Iraqi police officer is killed and two policemen are wounded Monday in a raid on a house where an insurgent linked to al Qaeda's was hiding in the southern Iraqi port city of Basra.
Acting on intelligence information, members from the Iraqi Major Crimes Task Force, backed by the army raided a house in the center of the city of Basra where a suspect was hiding.
When the raid was launched the suspect threw grenades killing one police officer and wounding two others.
The target was also killed in the attack.
(SOUNDBITE)(Arabic) IHSSAN MNAWER, DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF BASRA EDUCATION DEPARTMENT, SAYING:
"Police force raided at 0200 a.m. the house of the guard of Qamar Bani Hashim school where the insurgent was hiding. A police captain was killed and another policeman was wounded when the terrorist blew himself up."
Sources say the insurgent who was killed was was one of 12 insurgents linked to al Qaeda's Iraqi affiliate who had escaped from prison last January.
Deborah Lutterbeck, Reuters