Attack on Kurdistan security forces kills 9

Nine Kurdistan regional guards were killed and at least five injured Thursday when militants attacked their headquarters outside a town in the volatile Diyala province, Iraqi army officials said.

Jabbar Yawir, spokesman for the Kurdistan security forces, commonly known as peshmerga, said gunmen with the Islamic State of Iraq group opened fire on the guards at their base at Qara Tappah, about 80 miles northeast of Baghdad.

The assault was the latest in a campaign of attacks on Iraqi security forces, whom militants have condemned for their cooperation with U.S.-led forces.

Also Thursday, an Iraqi policeman was killed when gunmen attacked a patrol in Salahuddin province, north of Baghdad, police officials in the region said.

The attacks came two days after Islamic State of Iraq, which is linked to the insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq, posted a recording on the Internet in which its purported leader announced a new bombing campaign against U.S. forces and the “traitors” who fight with them.

Yawir said the Kurdistan forces had been in the region for about seven months and had been working to secure the area in coordination with multinational troops and the Iraqi army.

Yawir said the fighting began in the afternoon and lasted about two hours.

Capt. Raed Khudair, a police officer in nearby Khanaqin, said the Kurdish forces killed three attackers and seized a pickup truck used by the gunmen.

Diyala, which borders Iran, became a haven for insurgents after they were driven out of Anbar province in the west and many Baghdad neighborhoods as a result of the addition of about 28,500 U.S. troops in the country this year.

U.S. military officials have claimed significant security gains in Diyala.

ann.simmons@latimes.com