Security Summary: November 20-22, 2006

Aftermath of a car bomb in Baghdad yesterday

November 22, 2006:

BAGHDAD - A bodyguard working for parliamentary speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani was shot dead while driving on a private journey in Baghdad, a source at the Interior Ministry said. A car from the speaker's motorcade was damaged in a small blast on Tuesday outside parliament after an apparent security breach. Mashhadani, a Sunni Muslim, is an outspoken and controversial figure. In May one of his bodyguards survived an attempt to kill him.

TIKRIT - A U.S. soldier was killed and three wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near their vehicle in Salahaddin province on Tuesday, the U.S. military said in a statement.

MOSUL - Police said they recovered 14 bodies, including three women, in different areas of Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad.

KERBALA - Police said they found the body of police Major Basim Hasan al-Hasnawi with gunshot wounds to the head in central Kerbala, 110 km (68 miles) south of Baghdad. He had been abducted by gunmen two days earlier.

KERBALA - Tribal leader Ahmed al-Allawi was seriously wounded when gunmen opened fire on his car, police said.

BAGHDAD - Two roadside bombs exploded in quick succession, wounding two policemen when they went to retrieve the bodies of three people in Haifa street in central Baghdad, police said.

NEAR RAMADI - Police found the bodies of three people near Ramadi, 110 km (68 miles) west of Baghdad, police said.

FALLUJA - Gunmen killed a policeman in Falluja, 50 km (35 miles) west of Baghdad, police said.

NEAR MUQDADIYA - A car bomb near an Iraqi army checkpoint and an attack by gunmen killed four people -- a university professor, a traffic police officer and two soldiers -- and wounded three civilians, near the town of Muqdadiya, 100 km (60 miles) northeast of Baghdad, police said.

ISKANDARIYA - A roadside bomb planted near members of the Facility Protection Services (FPS) killed seven and wounded another on Tuesday in Iskandariya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

MOSUL - A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol wounded three policemen in Mosul.

MOSUL - Clashes between gunmen and police on Tuesday wounded six people, including three women, police said.

LATIFIYA - U.S. forces arrested 45 suspected insurgents on Tuesday in Latifiya, in an area dubbed "the Triangle of Death" south of Baghdad, the U.S. military said in a statement.

BAQUBA - Gunmen attacked a police patrol and killed three policemen in the religiously mixed city of Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

FALLUJA - U.S. Marines rescued two hostages and detained 13 suspected insurgents on Monday north of Falluja, 50 km (35 miles) west of Baghdad, the U.S. military said in a statement.

From Retuers/Alternet

November 21, 2006:

BAGHDAD - A small explosion in another vehicle damaged the car of Iraqi parliament speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani outside the parliament building, though the official was not aboard, a parliamentary source said. U.S. explosives experts destroyed further suspicious objects in controlled explosions, a U.S. military spokesman said. No one was injured.

HIBHIB - Gunmen killed Ali al-Shimari, the mayor of the town of Hibhib, near Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, and wounded four of his guards, police said. U.S. troops killed al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Hibhib in June.

MOSUL - Gunmen killed an off-duty police officer in the northern city of Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - At least three people were killed and 11 wounded in a U.S. raid in Baghdad's Sadr City district, an Interior Ministry source said. Health Ministry spokesman, Qassem Abdul Hadi, said the dead included a six-month-old infant, while up to 50 had been wounded and were being treated at the local Imam Ali Hospital. Other Iraqi officials put the number of wounded at 15.

BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol wounded nine people, including two policemen, in the eastern Camp Sara district of Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said.

BAGHDAD - A car bomb targeting a police patrol killed a civilian and wounded six others, including two policemen, an Interior Ministry source said.

HAWIJA - Gunmen killed a policeman on his way to work in the town of Hawija, 70 km (43 miles) southwest of Kirkuk, police said.

TIKRIT - The bodies of 40 unclaimed people were buried in Tikrit, 175 km (110 miles) north of Baghdad, a hospital source said.

From Retuers/Alternet

November 20, 2006:

KIRKUK - Gunmen in a car shot dead the director of administration at Kirkuk University's college of education, Hussein Qader, and wounded a colleague as they were coming out of a store in the south of the city, police said.

BAGHDAD - Police found 60 bodies in various parts of Baghdad over the past 24 hours, an Interior Ministry source said.

BAGHDAD - Gunmen attacked the convoy of an Iraqi deputy health minister, Hakim al-Zamily, killing two of his guards, but the minister was unhurt, Zamily told Reuters.

BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb hit the convoy of a junior minister, Mohammed al-Oreibi, an official in his party said. Nobody was hurt in the blast.

MOSUL - Gunmen killed Ahmad al-Tai, the head of clinical science at the nursing college in Mosul University in northern Iraq, police said.

TIKRIT - Police found eight bodies, including five people they said had been kidnapped on Sunday on the road from Dujail to Baghdad, police and a joint coordination center for Iraqi and U.S. forces said.

ISHAQI - A police colonel and two of his brothers were killed by gunmen on Sunday in Ishaqi, 100 km (60 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

NEAR BAGHDAD - Gunmen killed Ali al-Grari, a professor at Babil University in Hilla, in a drive-by shooting on the main road between Hilla and Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - The body of an Iraqi actor was found with three bullet wounds in the head in al-Yarmouk district in western Baghdad, police and al-Sharkiya channel said. Waleed Hassan was known for his popular sketch show "Caricature".

RAMADI - A suicide car bomber exploded his vehicle near a police checkpoint and killed two people, including a policeman, and wounded six others, including four policemen, in Ramadi, police and hospital sources said.

RAMADI - A mortar round landed near a court and wounded three people in Ramadi, 110 km (68 miles) west of Baghdad, a hospital source said.

NEAR MOSUL - A suicide car bomber rammed his car into a joint Iraqi police-army patrol and killed three soldiers and wounded four others, including a policeman, on Sunday in a town west of Mosul, police said.

ISKANDARIYA - A roadside bomb targeting an Iraqi army patrol killed two civilians and wounded three others in the town of Iskandariya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb in a crowded food market killed three people and wounded five others in Jamila district in eastern Baghdad, police said. An Interior Ministry source put the death toll at two, with seven wounded.

FALLUJA - A U.S. Marine died on Sunday from wounds suffered in combat in the western province of Anbar, the U.S. military said.

BAGHDAD - Iraqi special forces backed by U.S. advisers raided a group suspected of kidnapping, torturing and murdering Iraqi civilians and soldiers, the U.S. military said. The raid was in Sadr City, a Shi'ite militia stronghold in Baghdad. The U.S. statement said Iraqi forces searched a mosque. No one was detained and there was "minimal damage" to the mosque, it said.

NEAR BAGHDAD - The bodies of 14 people, with gunshot wounds and bearing signs of torture, were found dumped south of Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said.

RAMADI - U.S. forces conducted an air strike and killed two suspected insurgents on Sunday in the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Ramadi, the U.S. military said in a statement.

BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb exploded near a police patrol and wounded two civilians near a highway in central Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said.

BAQUBA - Gunmen killed a police officer from the Facility Protection Services (FPS) along with his driver in the religiously mixed city of Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

From Retuers/Alternet