BAGHDAD, July 9 (UPI) -- Eight people were killed, including three gunmen, in separate violent incidents in Iraq Saturday, Iraqi police sources said.
Four of those killed were in a taxi from Baghdad heading to the northern city of Mosul when gunmen hijacked the car and fatally shot them inside the vehicle.
Gunmen also killed an Iraqi police officer in his car in al-Yarmouk district in western Mosul, while the bodies of two Iraqi soldiers and four men were found in the same city.
Three gunmen were killed in armed clashes with Iraqi security forces.
Authorities arrested two suspected terrorists in possession of two booby-trapped cars in a desert area south of Baghdad, and captured seven other suspects west of the capital.
Eight suspects were arrested in the troubled city of Tellafar near Mosul, and five others in the town of Alexandria south of Baghdad.
The arrests came as Interior Minister Jaber Solagh announced the formation of the "Lightning Force" made up of up to 3,000 well-equipped special anti-terrorist troops.
