Security Summary: Novemer 25-28, 2006

Aftermath of 1 of 2 car bombs exploded outside west Baghdad's Yarmuk hospital where people were waiting to collect bodies of relatives

November 28, 2006:

RAMADI - Six Iraqis, including five girls ranging in age from infant to teenager, were killed during a firefight between a U.S. patrol and suspected insurgents in Ramadi, the U.S. military said.

FALLUJA - A U.S. Marine died on Monday from wounds sustained in combat in Anbar province, the U.S. military said.

BAGHDAD - Thirty-six bodies with gunshot wounds and some with signs of torture were found in different areas of Baghdad on Tuesday, the Interior Ministry said.

BAGHDAD - Seven mortars fell on the western district of Ghazaliya, wounding 23 people, the Interior Ministry said.

BAGHDAD - Two car bombs close to west Baghdad's main Yarmouk hospital killed four people and wounded 40, a source at Baghdad police headquarters said. An Interior Ministry source gave the same figure of casualties but they said it was one car bomb.

BAGHDAD - U.S. forces raided a mosque and exchanged fire with the guards, wounding four and arresting 14 on Monday in the southern Doura district, an Interior Ministry source said. They found a car bomb factory, weapons and army uniforms. The U.S. military said it was checking the report.

KIRKUK - A man wearing an explosive vest blew himself up next to the convoy of the governor of the northern Iraqi province of Kirkuk, killing a passerby and wounding 12 people, the governor and health officials said.

BAGHDAD - Forty bodies with gunshot wounds and some with signs of torture were found in different parts of Baghdad on Monday, an Interior Ministry source said.

MOSUL - A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol wounded two policemen in the northern city of Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

TAL AFAR - Two policemen were wounded when they entered a house booby-trapped with explosives in the town of Tal Afar, about 420 km (260 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

From Reuters/Alternet

November 27, 2006:

TAL AFAR - Clashes erupted between gunmen and police during the night, killing three policemen and one gunman in Tal Afar, about 420 km (260 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - The bodies of five people were found with gunshot wounds and bearing signs of torture just north of Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said.

BAIJI - A police major was killed while he was trying to dismantle a roadside bomb in the oil refinery city of Baiji, 180 km (112 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - Gunmen attacked a Baghdad municipal office in central Baghdad and killed a guard and abducted three others, an Interior Ministry source said.

BAGHDAD - The U.S. military said three of its soldiers were killed and two others wounded by insurgents in Baghdad on Sunday.

RAMADI - U.S. forces killed two suspected insurgents on Sunday after observing them loading weapons from a cache into a vehicle in the insurgent stronghold city of Ramadi, 110 km (70 miles) west of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

DUJAIL - Gunmen attacked a checkpoint near Dujail, 90 km (55 miles) north of Baghdad, and kidnapped eight policemen, police said. A ninth policeman was wounded but managed to escape. One policeman was killed and another wounded when their patrol arrived at the scene and was ambushed.

RAMADI - The U.S. military said four Iraqi civilians were wounded, including three boys aged 6, 13 and 16, when mortar bombs fired by U.S. forces against insurgents hit them. The wounds were not life-threatening, a statement said.

From Reuters/Alternet

November 26, 2006:

KANAAN - A police source and residents said gunmen in army uniforms kidnapped 25 Shi'ite villagers late on Saturday from the small town of Kanaan, in Diyala province north of Baghdad.

BAGHDAD - Mortars or rockets landed in the vicinity of a U.S. military base in Baghdad, the U.S. military said, declining to say if there was any damage or casualties. A spokesman said the attack came from just outside Sadr City, a Shi'ite militia stronghold in northeast Baghdad, and that mortars or rockets were fired at the Sunni district of Adhamiya from the same site.

BAQUBA - Police in Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, found the bodies of 25 people, including seven teenagers blindfolded and each with a single gunshot wound to the head, in various parts of Baquba in the past 24 hours, police said.

BAGHDAD - Sunni clerics said militants had attacked Sunni mosques in west Baghdad.

RAMADI - The U.S. military said it launched air strikes and fired artillery to help a tribe in western Anbar after an attack by al Qaeda. "Al Qaeda burned homes and killed members of the tribe using small arms fire and mortars," the military said in a statement, adding it had no casualty figures.

Sattar al-Buzayi, head of the Anbar Salvation Council, an umbrella group of tribes in Anbar, said tribal fighters had raided an al Qaeda stronghold and killed 55 militants and arrested 25. He said nine tribal fighters were killed.

HAQLANIYA - U.S. forces said they found 11 bodies near the town of Haqlaniya, west of Baghdad. A U.S. statement said the 10 men and one youth died from gunshots.

HASWA - A car bomb killed five people and wounded 23 in a crowded market in Haswa, a small town 50 km (30 miles) south of Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said. Police in the regional capital Hilla said six or seven were killed and up to 27 wounded.

BAGHDAD - Gunmen clashed with guards for one of the country's top Sunni politicians in western Baghdad's Adl district before U.S. forces repelled the gunmen, a guard for Iraqi Accordance Front leader Adnan al-Dulaimi said.

BASRA - Gunmen killed three men and one woman in an attack on their car at a road junction in central Basra, a police official said.

MOSUL - Gunmen shot dead an office worker for Iraqiya state television in the northern city of Mosul on the doorstep of her home, police said.

FALLUJA - Two U.S. Marines died on Saturday from wounds suffered in combat in Iraq's western Anbar province, the U.S. military said. One of them was killed when a suicide car bomber attacked a checkpoint in Khaldiya, about 80 km (50 miles) west of Baghdad, killing three Iraqi civilians, including two children. Nine civilians were also wounded.

DIYALA PROVINCE - A U.S. soldier was killed and two were wounded when a roadside bomb hit their vehicle in Diyala province, north of Baghdad, on Saturday, the military said.

AZIZIYA - Clashes between insurgents and police on Saturday killed two people and wounded eight more in Aziziya, a town southeast of Baghdad, police said.

BAQUBA - The U.S. military said its forces killed four suspected insurgents linked to al Qaeda in Iraq and detained 11, including one dressed as a woman and pretending to nurse a baby, during a raid near Baquba.

MAHAWEEL - Two members of the local town council were dragged from their car and killed by gunmen in Mahaweel, 75 km (50 miles) south of Baghdad, on Saturday night, police said.

WAJEIYA - Gunmen killed Amir Shakir, a local council official and wounded three other people in the small town of Wajeiya, 25km (15 miles) east of Baquba, police said.

BAGHDAD - Mortar rounds fell in several areas of Baghdad, with one in southern Baghdad wounding two people, police said.

OTHER DEVELOPMENTS

BAGHDAD - Baghdad was under a vehicle curfew for the third day. It was imposed after Thursday's bombings in the Shi'ite stronghold of Sadr City that killed 202 people.

CAMP BUCCA - The U.S. military said a detainee died on Saturday at Camp Bucca, in southern Iraq, of what appeared to be natural causes. The statement said the man had complained of chest pains and was under medical care when he died.

From Reuters/Alternet

November 25, 2006:

BAGHDAD - A vehicle curfew in Baghdad was extended to 6 a.m. (0300 GMT) on Monday, the government spokesman said. It had been imposed after Thursday's devastating bombings in the Shi'ite stronghold of Sadr City.

BAGHDAD - Baghdad police retrieved 30 bodies of victims of violence on Friday and 17 on Saturday, an Interior Ministry source said. At the main hospital in mostly Sunni west Baghdad, Yarmouk, a source said it took in 21 bodies on Friday and 12 on Saturday, or 33 in all. Deputy Health Minister Hakim al-Zamily, a member of the Shi'ite faction led by radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, called Reuters to say hospitals were saying 33 Shi'ites had been killed in sectarian attacks in west Baghdad. The Interior Ministry and hospital sources could not confirm that.

BAGHDAD - Police in the capital found eight unidentified bodies overnight up to Saturday morning.

MOSUL - Gunmen ambushed and killed one policeman and wounded another in the northern city of Mosul, police said.

MOSUL - Gunmen wounded three Iraqi soldiers, police said.

BAGHDAD - The U.S. military said the Iraqi army found one mosque burned on Friday in a Sunni enclave of the mainly Shi'ite Hurriya district. Iraqi Defence Minister Abdul Qader Jasim told state television on Saturday one mosque was slightly damaged by fire and there were a few casualties. Deputy Prime Minister Salam al-Zobaie, a Sunni, told Reuters on Friday four mosques were attacked, several homes burned and there were a number of casualties. A source at police headquarters said on Friday 30 people had been killed and 48 wounded. An Interior Ministry source, however, later said there were three people killed. A resident who said he was present at the Nida Allah mosque told Reuters on Friday that 14 people were killed and eight at another mosque. Conflicting reports from Iraqi officials are not uncommon. A curfew has prevented independent verification.

BAGHDAD - Mortar rounds fell on a number of neighbourhoods of Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said. A woman was killed and three wounded in Hurriya in the northwest, five people were wounded in Ghazaliya in the west and seven were wounded in Mustansiriya in the east.

BAGHDAD - Mortar rounds hit the Shi'ite slum district of Sadr City, but there were no reports of casualties, residents said. Two mortar bombs also landed near the local office of radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in the Shi'ite enclave of Shula in mainly Sunni west Baghdad, a Sadr official said.

FALLUJA - A U.S. Marine died on Friday of wounds sustained in combat in Iraq's western Anbar province, the U.S. military said in a statement.

BALAD RUZ - Police found the bodies of 21 Shi'ites from an extended family, hours after they were abducted from homes in a mostly Sunni village outside Balad Ruz, 70 km (45 miles) northeast of Baghdad, a security source said. All of the dead were men and boys, aged from 12 upward.

TAJI - The U.S. military said it killed 22 insurgents in two separate clashes just north of Baghdad, shortly after carrying out three air strikes that destroyed a bomb-making factory.

BAGHDAD - Mortar rounds killed one mourner at a funeral and wounded six others in the mainly Shi'ite area of Abu Dshir in southern Baghdad, police and relatives of the victims said.

DAQUQ - Two militants died when a roadside bomb they were planting detonated by accident, police sources said. The incident happened on a main road near the town of Daquq, 35 km (20 miles) south of Kirkuk.

KIRKUK - A roadside bomb wounded four policemen when it exploded near their patrol in the ethnically tense city of Kirkuk, police said.

TIKRIT - A roadside bomb killed two guards and wounded three on Friday when it targeted the convoy of Brigadier-General Faridoun Talabani, who was lightly wounded, police said. Talabani is a senior commander in the Iraqi army.

From Reuters/Alternet