Nine dead in Iraq tribal clashes

KUT, Iraq: Nine people were shot dead in Iraq on Wednesday during two separate incidents involving tribal clashes that saw a soldier killed in the south of the country, police said.

Six people, including the soldier, were killed during a clash between two tribes sparked by a dispute over agricultural land, said Saad al-Zaidi, police spokesman for the area. The violence in Al-Uzair district, south of Amarah in the southeastern province of Maysan, lasted several hours, Zaidi told AFP.

The soldier was from one of the two tribes and had been "on leave when the conflict broke out because of disputes over farmland", he added. Despite beefed up security measures, Maysan province, which borders Iran, is a route for drug traffickers where tribal rivalry often degenerates into violence.