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A special police force managed to capture, on Thursday morning, a gunman believed to be the leader of al-Qaeda armed group in Tikrit and injured four of his aids, while a senior police officer survived an attempt on his life east of Tikrit, a police source said.

"Reliable intelligence information asserted the presence of the leader of al-Qaeda Group in Tikrit, Salam Mulla Mustafa Shneidkh, in Albuajail town east of Tikrit," an official source from the Salah ad-Din police department told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

"A special police force besieged the place and started a shootout with gunmen that ended with the arrest of the man and injuries to four gunmen," he added.

Meanwhile, the same source said, "Head of criminal investigations in the Salah ad-Din police department Colonel Hassan Ahmed survived an assassination attempt when a bomb detonated near his car on Tikrit road this morning."

The U.S. army has been waging security operations in Baghdad and nearby provinces targeting gunmen.

Iraqi army forces killed eight gunmen and arrested 105 suspected armed men during the past 24 hours in different parts in Baghdad and other provinces, the Iraqi army said on Thursday.

"The army forces managed to defuse a car bomb and eight explosive charges in Baghdad and other provinces during the past 24 hours," the U.S. army said in a statement received by VOI.