Insurgents Kill at Least 26 in Area North of Baghdad

Iraqi insurgents launched a series of deadly attacks on police and local army units in and around Baqubah on Saturday, killing at least 19 Iraqi security force members around the city about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.

Meanwhile, in the northern city of Tall Afar, Iraqi and U.S. forces remained locked in an intense battle with insurgents. Gunmen also launched attacks in several other Iraqi cities with large Sunni populations, including Kirkuk and Samarra.

At least 26 people were killed Saturday in the violence across Iraq.

Baqubah, capital of diverse Diyala province, has been the object of U.S. efforts to ease sectarian tensions before a constitutional referendum in October.

U.S. officials fear that Sunni anger over the recently unveiled draft constitution may fuel insurgent activity in places such as Diyala, home to Sunni Arabs, Shiites and Kurds.

Sunni Arabs, who controlled the government under Saddam Hussein, have seen power shift to Kurds and Shiites, who make up a majority of the Iraqi population. In recent weeks, U.S. Army units have fortified Iraqi checkpoints around Baqubah to help Iraqi forces combat the Sunni-supported insurgency. The Army is seeking to give Iraqi forces more responsibility in the battle against insurgents.

But Saturday’s attacks appeared to underscore the difficult task confronting U.S. and Iraqi authorities.

Gunmen early Saturday killed four soldiers at an Iraqi army checkpoint near Adhaim, north of Baqubah, Iraqi police said. At noon, police said, gunmen attacked Iraqi police in Baqubah, killing six. One witness said at least 30 attackers converged on the police from different directions and quickly overwhelmed them.

Later in the day, insurgents armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades killed nine in an attack on a joint Iraqi police and army checkpoint in Buhriz, just south of Baqubah.

A U.S. military spokesman called the attacks “unfortunate,” though not unusual in a region where Iraqi police and army forces are attacked daily.

Several Army officers have expressed frustration with Iraqi army and police units, saying they are not properly manning their checkpoints in the Baqubah area. Although less violent than cities in the heart of the so-called Sunni Triangle, greater Baqubah remains a hotbed of insurgent activity. Late last month, demonstrators marched through the city holding photos of Hussein and chanting Baath Party slogans.

In Tall Afar, U.S. and Iraqi government forces continued to bombard suspected insurgent positions in an intense campaign that has largely shut down the city west of Mosul.

Witnesses said U.S. planes carried out hours of bombing raids over the city Friday night, and Iraqi national guard and U.S. troops blocked streets and shut down access to the city.

“The situation in Tall Afar is moving from bad to worse,” said Sheik Salim Ibrahim, a tribal leader who complained that efforts by the Mosul governor to enlist the help of local sheiks to reestablish calm were failing.

The director of the Tall Afar Hospital said it had received the bodies of three people killed by shrapnel. A U.S. military spokeswoman said only that American soldiers were engaged in operations against insurgents in an effort to secure the city for the October elections.

Gunmen also killed three policemen at a checkpoint in Kirkuk, a northern city where tensions between Sunni Arabs and Kurds remain high.

In Samarra, about 60 miles northwest of Baghdad, attackers bombed a hospital and launched a mortar attack on a neighborhood. Four people were killed.

Times special correspondents Zaydan Khalaf in Samarra, Ali Windawi in Kirkuk and correspondents in Baqubah and Mosul contributed to this report.