Security Summary: January 6 & 7, 2006

Newly graduated police cadets parade in Hilla following ceremonies today

December 6, 2006

BAGHDAD - Police recovered the bodies of 71 people around Baghdad in the 24 hours to Saturday evening, an Interior Ministry source said. These included 27 bodies found in the Haifa Street area of central Baghdad.

ISKANDARIYA - Iraqi police special forces with U.S. backers captured four suspected insurgents on Friday in Iskandariya, the U.S. military said.

BAGHDAD - U.S. forces said they had detained an al Qaeda cell leader on Friday in southern Baghdad, who, a U.S. statement said, was "allegedly responsible for coordinating and conducting kidnapping, torture and murders of Iraqi civilians and security forces".

NAJAF - Gunmen killed two former members of the Baath party in two separate incidents in Najaf, police said.

MOSUL - Police in the northern city of Mosul found four bodies with signs of torture and gunshot wounds, police said.

BAGHDAD - Iraqi police clashed with gunmen near Haifa Street in central Baghdad when they went to investigate a report that local police had found 27 bodies near a cemetery, police and interior ministry sources said. A prominent Sunni Arab politician accused militias of attacking residents. State television later said the Iraqi army had killed 30 insurgents in the same area and detained eight, including several foreign Arabs. It was not clear how the incidents were related.

BAGHDAD - Two people were killed and four wounded by a car bomb in Doura in southern Baghdad, an interior ministry source said.

TAL AFAR - Three policemen were killed on Friday while searching a house that was booby-trapped with explosives in Tal Afar, 420 km (260 miles) northwest of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - Police in Baghdad found 47 bodies, many shot and tortured, in the 24 hours to Friday night, an interior ministry source said.

MOSUL - Gunmen killed a Kurdish labourer working for the government in Mosul, police said.

MOSUL - Iraqi soldiers killed two suspected insurgents and found a cache of weapons in Mosul, the Iraqi Army said.

KIFL - A former Baath party member was killed in a drive by shooting in Kifl, a town about 150 km (100 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

ISKANDARIYA - A man was found dead, shot in the head, on the main road in Iskandariya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

DIWANIYA - A policeman and a former Baath party member were shot dead in two separate incidents in Diwaniya, 180 km (112 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

BASRA - A British soldier was wounded when his convoy was hit by a roadside bomb but his injuries were not thought to be life threatening, Major Charlie Burbridge said.

BASRA - Two men found shot dead in Basra may be Iraqis who went missing on Friday along with an American contractor, police said. The U.S. embassy said it was still checking reports of an American kidnapped.

BAGHDAD - The chief of Baghdad police, Major General Ali Yasser, survived a car bomb attack on his motorcade in Baghdad, police sources said.

BAGHDAD - U.S. forces killed four suspects and detained a fifth in a raid targeting insurgents involved in making roadside bombs in Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

From Reuters/Alternet

December 7, 2006

BAGHDAD - Police found the bodies of 17 people, many tortured and with gunshot wounds, in different parts of Baghdad on Sunday, an interior ministry source said.

SUWAYRA - Police found four bodies, including one that had been decapitated, in Suwayra, about 45 km (30 miles) south of Baghdad, an interior ministry source said.

BAGHDAD - Three U.S. airmen working for a bomb disposal team were killed by a car bomb in Baghdad, the U.S. military said, and that one more airman was wounded in the blast.

BAGHDAD - Habib al-Shimiri, a senior Education Ministry official, survived a roadside bomb attack on his car near the al-Shaab football stadium in east central Baghdad, but two of his guards were killed, police said.

HILLA - A car bomb in a market in the town of Hilla, 100 km (60 miles) south of Baghdad, killed two people and wounded 11, police and Interior Ministry sources said, adding that the death toll could climb.

BAGHDAD - Several mortar rounds landed on a car warehouse, killing four people and wounding five in Karrada district in central Baghdad, police said.

MOSUL - The bodies of two people were found shot dead in the outskirts of Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, a witness said. Police said another four bodies were found separately in the city.

BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb killed two people and wounded two in central Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said.

SAMARRA - Police commandos killed one person during a demonstration in Samarra, 100 km (60 miles) north of Baghdad, denouncing Saddam Hussein's execution, police said.

TUZ KHURMATO - Gunmen attacked worshippers coming out of a mosque and wounded four of them on Saturday in the town of Tuz Khurmato, 70 km (40 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

RIYADH - Police found a headless body on Saturday in the town of Riyadh, 60 km (40 miles) southwest of Kirkuk, police said.

SAMARRA - Gunmen killed a policeman on Saturday in Samarra, police said.

BAGHDAD - A U.S. soldier was killed by small arms fire in southwest Baghdad on Saturday, the U.S. military said on Sunday.

FALLUJA - A U.S. soldier died on Friday from wounds suffered in combat in Iraq's western province of Anbar, the military said on Sunday.

YUSUFIYA - U.S. and Iraqi troops rounded up 82 suspects in raids north of Yusufiya, 15 km (9 miles) south of Baghdad, on Jan. 2, the U.S. military said in a statement. Thirteen were detained for links to roadside bombs and the rest were released after questioning.

From Reuters/Alternet