Security Summary: January 24, 2007

U.S. Armored Stryker vehicles on Haifa Street today

BAGHDAD - U.S. and Iraqi troops clashed with gunmen in the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Haifa Street in central Baghdad. The U.S. military said the aim of the operation was to regain Iraqi security control of the area. The Iraqi defence ministry said 30 insurgents had been killed and 35 more detained, including some foreign Arab fighters.

BAGHDAD - A U.S. soldier was killed by small arms fire in central Baghdad, the U.S. military said. It was not immediately clear if the soldier was killed in the Haifa Street operation. A U.S. statement said the soldier had been "participating in a combined security operation in the area, aimed at disrupting and isolating militia activity". It said two other soldiers were wounded.

LATIFIYA - U.S. and Iraqi forces killed five suspected insurgents and detained eight more during a patrol on Tuesday near Latifiya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

BAGHDAD - A suicide car bomber blew up near a police patrol, killing four policemen and wounding three civilians in the western Sunni Arab Amiriya district, police said.

BAGHDAD - Several mortar rounds landed on Baladiyat residential district and wounded a man, police said.

ANBAR PROVINCE - Two U.S. Marines died in combat in Anbar province on Tuesday, the U.S. military said in a statement. It had said earlier the soldiers were killed on Wednesday.

BAGHDAD - Three mortars landed near City Hospital in central Baghdad, killing two people and wounding 20, police said.

BAGHDAD - Gunmen opened fire on a minibus carrying Shi'ite pilgrims and wounded two of them in the southern Saydiya district of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - Gunmen killed Dhiyaa al-Mugoutir, a professor at Mustansiriya University, in a drive-by shooting on Tuesday in the northern Adhamiya district of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - The body of a Sunni woman bank employee kidnapped on Monday was found in Baghdad's morgue on Wednesday, the Sunni Muslim Scholars Association said in a statement.

BAGHDAD - Gunmen opened fire on the motorcade of Abd Dhiab al-Ajili, the minister of higher education, on a highway in the southern Doura district of Baghdad, killing one of his guards and seriously wounding another, the minister told Reuters.

BAGHDAD - A total of 17 bodies were found, shot dead, in different districts of Baghdad on Tuesday, police said.

KUT - Gunmen killed an Iraqi translator who worked with the U.S. forces on Tuesday in the city of Kut, 170 km (105 miles) southeast of Baghdad, police said.

SUWAYRA - Clashes erupted between gunmen and Iraqi army and police, wounding six soldiers on Tuesday in the town of Suwayra, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, police said. Three soldiers were reported missing after the clashes.

From Reuters/Alternet