2 people killed, senior official arrested in Iraq

A soldier and a civilian were killed and four people wounded in attacks in central and eastern Iraq on Friday, while Iraqi security forces arrested a senior provincial official on charges of terrorism in the day, the police said. Gunmen in their car opened fire on an Iraqi army checkpoint in the town of Amriyat al-Fallujah, near the city of Fallujah, some 50 km west of Baghdad, killing a soldier and wounding two others, a local police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. In Iraq's eastern province of Diyala, gunmen shot dead a restaurant owner near his house in the town of al-Sa'diyah, some 120 km northeast of Baghdad, a source from Diyala's operations command anonymously told Xinhua. Separately, two people were wounded in separate bomb and gunfire attacks near the provincial capital city of Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad, the source said. Also in the province, an Iraqi security force arrested Bilal Khalil, head of the office of Diyala's governor, at a checkpoint in north of Baquba, he said. The force carried out the arrest under an arrest warrant issued against Khalil on charges of terrorism, the source added. In addition, Iraqi security forces carried out search operation near Baquba and arrested four suspects believed to be members of a cell linked to al-Qaida militant group, the source said. Diyala province, which stretches from the eastern edges of Baghdad to the Iranian border east of the country, has long been a stronghold for al-Qaida militants and other insurgent groups since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.