Security Summary: January 2, 2007

A truck damaged by a car bombing which killed at least 3 people today in Baghdad

BAGHDAD - Police in Baghdad found the bodies of 45 people, most apparently the victims of death squads, a police source and an Interior Ministry official said.

BAGHDAD - A mortar attack on the Abudschir residential district in southern Baghdad killed four civilians and wounded four others, police said.

FALLUJA - A U.S. Marine killed an Iraqi soldier during what the U.S. military described as an "altercation" at a security post in Falluja on Saturday. The Marine has been assigned to administrative duties and a criminal investigation is under way, a U.S. statement said.

BAQUBA - Gunmen shot dead Ali Majeed Salbokh, a member of the Diyala provincial council, along with three of his aides, 20 km (12 miles) east of Baquba on Monday, police said.

BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb exploded near a U.S. patrol, killing one soldier and wounding three, including an interpreter, southwest of Baghdad on Monday, the U.S. military said in a statement.

BAGHDAD - U.S. forces killed three insurgents and wounded one, and detained two other suspected insurgents, in a raid on an al Qaeda weapons dealer in Baghdad early on Tuesday, the U.S. military said in a statement.

MADAEN - Gunmen forced a minibus to stop and kidnapped a family in the town of Madaen, 45 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, Interior Ministry sources said. It was not known exactly how many people were missing.

NAHRAWAN - Police found five bodies bearing signs of torture and bullet wounds in the town of Nahrawan, 30 km (20 miles) southeast of Baghdad, police said.

MOSUL - The hospital in Mosul received the bullet-riddled bodies of three brothers on Monday, hospital and morgue sources said.

From Reuters/Alternet