Security Summary: December 12, 2006

Men grieve following a car bombing which killed more than 70 today in Baghdad

BAGHDAD - A suicide bomber killed 70 people and wounded 236 in central Baghdad after luring a crowd of day labourers to his vehicle with promises of work, the Interior Ministry said.

BAGHDAD - Iraqi police found 47 bodies in different parts of Baghdad, all apparent victims of sectarian violence.

KIRKUK - Five people were killed and 15 wounded when a suicide car bomber blew himself up near an Iraqi army checkpoint in the northern city of Kirkuk, police said.

BAGHDAD - A suicide car bomb exploded at a police checkpoint in Radwaniya in southern Baghdad, killing one person and wounding eight, the Interior Ministry said.

MOSUL - Gunmen shot dead a television cameraman working for Associated Press Television News in the northern city of Mosul, the U.S. news organisation and Iraqi police said.

RIYADH - A mortar round landed on a house, killing a mother and her two children and wounded two others in the town of Riyadh 60 km (40 miles) southwest of Kirkuk, police said.

NEAR HAWIJA - Gunmen shot dead two policemen near the town of Hawija 70 km (45 miles) southwest of Kirkuk, police said.

KIRKUK - Police found a body with gunshot wounds in the town of Chemin, 15 km (8 km) north of Kirkuk, police said.

MOSUL - Police found the bodies of four people, including an elderly woman, in different parts of Mosul. All had gunshot wounds.

BASRA - Gunmen killed an Iraqi army colonel north of the southern city of Basra as he headed to his office.

From Reuters/Alternet