BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's military said eight policemen were killed in eastern Baghdad on Tuesday as they tried to defuse a series of rockets that had been prepared for an attack.
The security forces had been responding to rockets fired attwo nearby army bases, one for U.S. and one for Iraqi forces,from the capital's Shi'ite Ubaidi district.
"The bomb disposal unit were trying to defuse eight rocketsin Ubaidi but they lost control and it exploded, killing eightand wounding 42," said Major-General Qassim Moussawi, spokesmanfor Iraq's military in Baghdad.
The U.S. military confirmed there had been an attack on oneof their bases but had no further details.
On Monday, five civilians were killed and 14 wounded whenrockets landed on a Sunni residential area near Baghdad'sinternational airport, one of the capital's deadliest rocketattacks for months. Police said they were fired from aneighbouring Shi'ite area.
The Iraqi military said on Saturday that attacks in Baghdadhad dropped by up to 80 percent thanks to a year-long securitycrackdown on al Qaeda militants and feuding Sunni Arab andShi'ite gunmen.
But the U.S. military has warned that "special groups", bywhich it means rogue elements in the Mehdi Army militia ofShi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, are still active and it hasbeen targeting them aggressively.
(Reporting by Michael Holden, editing by Tim Pearce)
