At least nine Iraqis killed as US forces capture al Qaeda suspects

Eight Iraqi civilians and a police captain were killed in attacks around the country, as a joint Iraqi-US security operation arrested dozens of alleged Al-Qaeda suspects in Baghdad.

According to AFP, American forces on Saturday announced the arrest of 60 suspected members of a car bomb cell after swooping on a funeral ceremony. They were "detained without incident" on Friday after intelligence data led troops to a funeral in Arab Jabur, on the southern edge of Baghdad.

At the same time, however, violent attacks continued around the country.

In Baquba, north of the capital, attackers shot dead a police captain as he was heading in to work and separately detonated a roadside bomb, wounding seven officers conducting a patrol, police said. Two civilians also died by drive-by shootings in the town.

Meanwhile, in Baghdad proper, five officers were wounded when a roadside bomb detonated in the Adhamiyah district in the north of the city.

South of the city, a clan chieftain was murdered by unidentified gunmen in Hilla, while a grocer was shot dead in Iskandiriyah, police said.

In Basra, Iraq's second largest city, a bomb was left in a shop selling videos and cassette tapes, killing two civilians, according to police.

In Amara, a town in the mainly Shiite southern region, gunmen killed two former members of his Baath party.
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