Security Summary: January 9, 2007

A bus destroyed in an ambush yesterday in Baghdad. At least 9 people were killed.

BAGHDAD - A house in the volatile Shi'ite district of Sadr City in eastern Baghdad was blown up and local residents said it was caused by a U.S. air strike. Doctors showed journalists the bodies of two men, a woman and two children they said died in the house. The U.S. military had no immediate comment.

BAGHDAD - Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's office and police denied reports from Sunni community leaders of Sunni pilgrims returning from the haj being kidnapped.

BALAD RUZ - Iraqi army sources said U.S. and Iraqi troops had killed dozens of militants in Balad Ruz, a town south of Baghdad that is a Sunni Arab insurgent stronghold.

BAGHDAD - Police found 40 bodies in various parts of Baghdad in the past day, an interior ministry source said.

MOSUL - Police found six bodies, including one woman, in the northern city of Mosul, police said.

BAGHDAD - Fifty militants were killed in central Baghdad in clashes between gunmen and U.S. and Iraqi forces on Tuesday, Defence Ministry spokesman Major General Ibrahim Shakir said.

MOSUL - Gunmen kidnapped Abdul Ghafour al-Jouburi, head of the customs department in northern Iraq, police said.

MAHMUDIYA - Three mortar rounds landed on a house in Mahmudiya, 30 km (20 miles) south of Baghdad, killing one person and wounding three from the same family, police said.

NEAR KIRKUK - Iraqi army attacked two gunmen as they were trying to pass their checkpoint near Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad.

BAGHDAD - U.S. and Iraqi forces clashed with gunmen in central Baghdad, coming under fire from mortars and rocket- propelled grenades during raids near Haifa street, the U.S. military said, adding three insurgents were arrested. Iraqi defence officials said 11 were arrested, including 7 Syrians.

NEAR BALAD RUZ - U.S. and Iraqi forces conducted a ground and air assault operation near Balad Ruz, north of Baghdad, and killed several insurgents, the U.S. military said. Several large weapon caches were also discovered.

YUSUFIYA - Iraqi troops arrested Ibrahim al-Jouburi, known as the Prince of al Qaeda in Yusufiya, and Abdullah al-Zoubai, leader of the 20th Revolutionary Brigades insurgent group in Yusufiya, 15 km (9 miles) south of Baghdad on Monday, the Defence Ministry said.

BAGHDAD - The Iraqi army released eight people who had been kidnapped by insurgents in Omar street in central Baghdad, the Defence Ministry said.

From Reuters/Alternet