As many as 29 people were killed in fresh spat of violence across Iraq. The security forces killed 15 terror suspects and arrested nine in a raid on Haifa street in central Baghdad, Defence Minister Hazem al-Shaalan told reporters on Thursday.
"You have all heard about the notorious Haifa Street, where there are criminal cells of extremists and those loyal to the previous regime," said Shaalan, flanked by Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and Interior Minister Falah al-Naqib.
"A joint operation by the National Guards and elements of the defence ministry led to the killing of 15 people and the arrest of nine." He said those arrested provided information and intelligence which "led to the chief of the Haifa street cells who in turn confessed and gave information that has in turn led to other criminal elements in Baghdad."
Shaalan did not say when the raid and arrests took place.
Both Iraqi security and US military patrols have come under regular attack on Haifa Street.
While in the Iraqi town of Haditha, ten people were killed, including three policemen in a car bomb attack on a police station, police and hospital sources said.
"Three policemen and seven civilians were killed, while 27 people, seven of them from the police force, were injured," said Haditha police Lieutenant Alaa el-Jughaithi.
Jughaithi said the car bomb had been placed in front of the police station in Haditha, a town west of Baghdad which had until now been relatively free of the violence.
The station is close to several local government buildings and a fire station.
Despite its normally peaceful reputation, Haditha lies in the unruly province of Al-Anbar, home to notorious hotbeds of anti-American activity such as Fallujah and Ramadi.
Moreover, four members of the same family, including three children, were killed in a rocket strike late on Wednesday as they slept on the roof of their home in the northern Iraq City of Kirkuk, police said.
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