(AP)
Updated: 2007-08-23 20:45

BAGHDAD - Suspected al-Qaida fighters attacked a Sunni village east of Baqouba on Thursday and killed a village leader who had led the community in an uprising against the terrorist organization, witnesses and police said.

Iraqi men carry a dead policeman outside the hospital in Baqouba, capital of Iraq's Diyala province, 60 kilometers (35 miles) northeast of Baghdad, Thursday Aug. 23, 2007. On the way to a scene where al-Qaeda gunmen attacked the house of Sheik Younis, a dignitary who urged the people to fight al-Qaeda, in the village of Ibrahim al-Yahya one of the Iraqi Police vehicles turned upside down, killing two policemen and wounding five others, police said. [AP]

At the same time Timim, a nearby Shiite village, came under attack, again by suspected al-Qaida fighters. A total of 15 people, including seven women, were killed and 22 wounded in the two assaults, said Baqouba police Brig. Ali Dlaiyan.

Ten attackers were killed as villagers fought back, he said. A joint US-Iraqi force had blocked the region.

The attack by about 25 gunmen on the Ibrahim al-Yahya village began at 6:30 am when the fighters exploded a bomb at the house of Sheik Younis al-Shimari, destroying his home and killing him and one member of his family. Ten people were wounded, including four other members of the family and passers-by. Some of the wounded were hit by gunfire.

"They were shouting Allah Akbar and Curse be upon the Renegades," said Umm Ahmed, who was among the three women wounded in the attack. She refused to give her full name fearing retribution. "This attack will cause the uprising against them to spread to other villages."

A police vehicle rushing to the attack scene crashed and two policemen were killed, according to officials in the Diyala provincial police force who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.

Armed men in the village assembled and drove the fighters back in a 30-minute gunbattle, witnesses said.

Al-Qaida has been forced to fight a rear-guard action against many of its former allies in the Sunni community who have risen up against the organization because of its brutality and attempts to impose the group's austere version of Islam.

The uprising began spontaneously in Anbar province, once a bastion of the Sunni insurgency in the west of Iraq, and has spread to Diyala province and some Baghdad neighborhoods.

Also Thursday, the US military reported that a US soldier was killed and four were wounded in combat operations west of the capital Wednesday. The death raised to at least 3,723 members of the US military who have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

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