Security Summary: January 31, 2007

A policeman secures the site of a carbomb attack in Baghdad today

BAGHDAD - Three university professors and a student kidnapped in Baghdad on Sunday have been killed, Adnan al-Janabi, the head of al-Nahrain university, told Reuters. He said police had informed the university that their bodies were in the Baghdad morgue.

NAJAF - The governor of Najaf province, Asaad Abu Gilel, said 12 Iraqi soldiers and policemen were killed in Sunday's battle with a group that the Iraqi authorities said styled itself the "Soldiers of Heaven". The governor said 650 followers were captured and 300 or more killed.

BAGHDAD - The Iraqi army killed 210 insurgents and arrested 342 in the past two days in various parts of Iraq, the Defence Ministry said.

BAGHDAD - Ten mortar rounds landed in different parts of Adhamiya district in northern Baghdad, killing four people and wounding 20, police said.

TAL AFAR - A car bomb aimed at an Iraqi army patrol wounded 10 civilians in the northern town of Tal Afar, 420 km (260 miles) north of Baghdad, hospital and Iraqi army source said.

NEAR KIRKUK - Sadeddin Ergech, the leader of the Iraqi Turkmen Front, the largest political party in Kirkuk, escaped unharmed from a roadside bomb attack on Tuesday near the oil rich city, police said.

KIRKUK - A roadside bomb killed one person and wounded two people in Kirkuk, police said.

BAGHDAD - A car bomb killed two people and wounded eight in Bab al-Muadham area in central Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - A car bomb wounded two people in al-Maamoun district in central Baghdad, police said.

BAIJI - A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol wounded six policemen in the refinery city of Baiji, 180 km (112 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

BAIJI - Police found the bodies of two people with bullet wounds to the head in Baiji, police said.

BAIJI - Gunmen killed a policeman late on Tuesday in Baiji, police said.

MAHMUDIYA - A U.S. helicopter killed two insurgents on Wednesday in an attack on four men trying to plant a roadside bomb in Mahmudiya, 30 km (20 miles) south of Baghdad, the U.S. military said. Residents said the air strike targeted Shi'ite followers of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr marking the Ashura ritual.

FALLUJA - The bodies of six people shot in the head and chest were found in the Sunni stronghold of Falluja, 50 km (35 miles) west of Baghdad, police said.

FALLUJA - Gunmen killed a teenager in the city of Falluja, police said.

ANBAR PROVINCE - Two U.S. soldiers and a Marine died on Tuesday from wounds suffered in combat in the restive western province of Anbar, the U.S. military said on Wednesday.

MIQDADIYA - A suicide bomber in a fuel truck rammed the main gate of an Iraqi army base in Miqdadiya, 90 km (50 miles) northeast of Baghdad, wounding nine soldiers, an Iraqi army source said.

BAGHDAD - A car bomb killed one person and wounded six people in New Baghdad district, police said.

BAGHDAD - Police found the bodies of eight people in various parts of Baghdad in the 24 hours to Tuesday evening, a police source said.

MOSUL - The body of a man who had been decapitated was found in Mosul, north of Baghdad, police said.

From Reuters/Alternet