1ST LEAD: Iraqi forces foil al-Qaeda plot to control Tikrit

Iraqi forces have foiled an al-Qaeda plot to seize control of the city of Tikrit, security officials said Monday, while a Polish soldier was reportedly killed in a separate incident in Diwaniyah. The al-Qaeda in Iraq terrorist network was planning to attack numerous targets in central Tikrit, 175 kilometres north of Baghdad and the capital of Salahaddin province, in order to control the city and link it to the so-called Islamic State of Iraq, an al-Qaeda affiliate, according to the officials. The plan involved assaulting the relatively stable city from the south, the west and the east, avoiding the northern part where US troops are based in a former air force facility, the source added. Director of the Salahaddin National Security Centre Colonel Jasssem Hussein Mohammed said that Iraqi security forces had managed to raid the militants' dens, arresting dozens of gunmen, killing scores of others and confiscating large amounts of explosives and weapons. Among those killed were Saudi national Abu Obada, who headed al- Qaeda in the north Tigris area, and Ali Youssif al-Jabouri, the mufti of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq, said Major Ahmed Sobhi of the Salahaddin police command anti-terrorism unit. Al-Jabouri was responsible for a fatwa (a religious judgment) that stipulated the killing of at least 100 residents of Duluiyah for resisting al-Qaeda militants. Meanwhile, Iraqi independent Sharkiya TV reported Monday that a Polish soldier, from the Multi-National Forces in Iraq, was shot dead by a sniper in Diwaniyah, 200 kilometres south of Baghdad. No further details were immediately available. In the Kazimiya district of northern Baghdad, a roadside bomb went off Monday morning on a main road, injuring 15 people, some seriously, an Iraqi police source said. Most of the victims were in buses on their way to work, media reports said. Two civilian cars were damaged in the attack. Security forces sealed off the area, while ambulances rushed the victims to a nearby hospital. dpa ma ch