London reduces forces in Iraq, Bin Hali denies attacks on AL procession

The assistant secretary general of the Arab League, Ahmad Bin Hali, on Monday denied that the procession of the Arab League now present in Iraq was exposed to fire.

Earlier, the Iraqi police announced that the procession of the Arab League was exposed on Tuesday to fire, west of the capital, when it was heading to take part in al-Iftar banquet at the headquarters of the Muslim Scholars Commission and this resulted in the death of three police men who were guarding them. No victims were reported for members of the delegation.

This coincided with the continued explosions and attacks in various parts of Iraq, the last of which was the killing of the member in the Islamic party Ahmad Saleh and one municipality official by the bullets of gunmen in Musil.

In another development, one Iraqi soldier was killed by the fire of gunmen while the body of one policeman was also found hit by two bullets in the head and the stomach. Thereby, the number of Iraqis killed in the past hours increased to 13 who were killed in attacks within hours in various parts of the country, according to security forcers.

The US army admitted the killing of one of its soldiers and injuring other three Iraqis in a booby trapped car targeting one inspection point at one of the entrances of the so-called Green Zone area in Baghdad.

In another development, the British defense office secretary John Reid announced the reduction in the number of British forces deployed in Iraq from 8500 to 8000 for November, describing this reduction as a very minor change.