ARBIL: The U. S. Military spoke out on Wednesday against a deadly Iraqi special forces raid on the governor's office in one of the country's most restive provinces, saying it was a "rogue operation"

The Iraqi unit stormed Diyala governor Raad Rasheed Mulla Jawad's office in the provincial capital, Baquba, before dawn on Tuesday, killed his secretary and clashed with the regular army before withdrawing .

The raid has increased tensions in an already volatile area where U. S.-backed Iraqi forces launched a major military offensive last month on al Qaeda Sunni Arab militants.

"The U. S. was not involved in that raid. It was an element of one of the Iraqi special operations forces... Do we support it in principle? Absolutely not," said Major-General Mark Hertling, commander of U. S. forces in northern Iraq.

Hertling's deputy, Brigadier-General James Boozer, added: "It was what appears to be a rogue operation. It's definitely concerning that we have an element that would go do something like that."

The generals were addressing journalists in the northern town of Arbil on the sidelines of an economic conference.

Diyala, in a fertile river valley north of Baghdad, has remained very violent even as the rest of Iraq gets safer.

The provincial council announced it was suspending all work until it receives an explanation, and the governor called a three day period of mourning for his slain secretary.

The province, which has an ethnically and religiously mixed population, has undergone political turmoil in recent weeks. The governor survived a bomb blast on his convoy last week, days after the provincial council voted to fire the police chief.
Source : Reuters