U.S. forces arrest 4 police personnel near Baaquba

DIALA / IraqiNews.com: U.S. forces on Saturday arrested four police personnel northeast of Baaquba city, a media official from Diala’s police command said. “Today, U.S. forces detained four policemen in Abi Sida, al-Muqdadiya district (45 km northeast of Baaquba),” Maj. Ghaleb al-Karkhi told IraqiNews.com, providing no details of the reasons behind the arrest. IraqiNews.com has made every effort to contact the U.S. side, but to no avail. No comment was immediately available from the U.S. forces. Diala province, a mix of Sunnis and Shiites, extends to the northeast of Baghdad as far as the Iranian border. Its capital is Baaquba, 57 km northeast of Baghdad. It covers an area of 17,685 square kilometers (6,828 sq mi). A large portion of the province is drained by the Diala River, a major tributary of the Tigris. Because of its proximity to two major sources of water, Diala’s main industry is agriculture, primarily dates grown in large Date Palm groves. It is also recognized as the orange capital of the Middle East. In January 2008 Operation Phantom Phoenix was launched in an attempt to eradicate the remnants of al-Qaeda network following the Diala province campaign between 2006 and 2007. SS (S) 1