BAGHDAD, Aug 19 (Reuters) - An Iraqi security forces unit attacked the office of the governor of restive Diyala province early on Tuesday, killing the governor's secretary and triggering clashes before withdrawing.

Governor Raad Rasheed Mulla Jawad, who survived an assassination attempt last week, said a counter-terrorism unit had stormed his office at 2:30 a.m., killed secretary Abbas Ali Hmoud, and arrested a member of the provincial council.

"The body of the martyr will stay in the building until the killers are captured," the governor told Reuters. The governor was not present in the building during the raid.

The identity of the force that staged the assault was not immediately clear. Its members clashed with police and Iraqi army units in the provincial capital Baquba before withdrawing.

A source in the governor's office said four policemen and two civilians were wounded in the clashes, before the unit was apparently permitted to withdraw.

Diyala, in a fertile area north of Baghdad, has remained one of the most violent parts of Iraq as the rest of the country has become safer.

U.S.-backed Iraqi forces launched a crackdown last month on Sunni Arab militants believed to be hiding out in its rural palm groves. They have also battled what they say are militias that have infiltrated the police.

The governor survived a bomb blast on his convoy last week, days after the provincial council voted to fire the police chief.

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