A senior militant was killed in a gunfight between his fighters and police near the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, police said on Sunday.
Rafiq Mahmoud Jawali, the self-styled “Emir” of Kirkuk for the Ansar al-Sunna insurgent group, was killed in a firefight between Iraqi security forces and militants, police General Sarhad Qadir said.
Jawali’s deputy, Ghanem Azzawi, was wounded and taken into custody, Qadir said.
An Iraqi military officer was also killed earlier in the day, and five policemen were wounded in three separate attacks.
Lieutenant Jabar Karim was killed when a bomb exploded near his military vehicle in the district of Rahim Awa, north of Kirkuk, General Adnan Khiru said.
Two other bombs in the city killed a total of five policemen, police said.
Kirkuk and its nearby oil fields have long been a source of dispute between Iraqi Arabs and Iraqi Kurds, many of whom hope to make the city the capital of a future independent state.
In recent days, hundreds of protesters have demonstrated in Kirkuk against a US plan to begin joint patrols with Kurdish security forces of the disputed areas north of the city.
Just south of Kirkuk, in Salah al-Din Province, a senior police officer narrowly escaped an assassination attempt, police said.
Lieutenant Colonel Saad al-Khattab escaped with minor injuries after a bomb placed under his car exploded.
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