Security Summary: December 30, 2006

A distaught Irai after a car-bombing in a Kufa market killed at least 17 today

BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb killed one U.S. soldier and wounded three more in southwest Baghdad on Friday, the U.S. military said.

BAGHDAD - Three car bombs exploded in quick succession in the mainly Shi'ite neighbourhood of Hurriya in Baghdad, killing 36 people and wounding 77, an Interior Ministry source said.

BAGHDAD - A car bomb killed two people and wounded eight in Baghdad's western Mansour neighbourhood, an Interior Ministry source said.

TAL AFAR - A suicide bomber with explosives strapped to his body killed five people and wounded eight, including four policemen, in the northern city of Tal Afar, police said.

BAGHDAD - A car bomb in the southern Baghdad neighbourhood of Saidiya killed one person and wounded four, including two policemen, an Interior Ministry source said.

BAGHDAD - Three U.S. marines died from wounds suffered in combat in Anbar province, one soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad and another soldier was killed in Anbar, the military said on Saturday, bringing to 2,997 the number of U.S. military deaths in Iraq since the invasion in 2003. December is now the deadliest month for U.S. troops in two years.

KUFA - Police in Kufa, near the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf, said 36 people were killed and 58 wounded by the car bomb at a market packed with shoppers ahead of the week-long Eid al-Adha holiday. They said a mob killed a man they accused of planting the bomb in the town about 160 km (100 miles) south of Baghdad.

MAHMUDIYA - Police said the bodies of four people who had been tortured and shot dead were found in Mahmudiya, about 30 km (20 miles) south of Baghdad.

BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb killed one U.S. soldier and wounded two others when it hit their patrol in northwest Baghdad on Friday, the U.S. military said.


From Reuters/Alternet