Security Summary: February 16, 2007

Iraqi soldiers check papers and frisk a man at a checkpoint in Baghdad today. Recent 'emergency powers' given to the Lt. Gen. Qanbar, the Iraqi commander in Baghdad, give security forces the right to detain and question individuals, to restrict travel of individuals, and to search all private buildings and houses at will, along with other martial law-like powers.

BAGHDAD - Eleven bodies were found in Baghdad in the past 24 hours, police said.

BAGHDAD - The U.S. military denied reports that the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al- Masri, had been wounded in a clash with Iraqi troops north of Baghdad.

KIRKUK - Three guards of Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari were killed and five others wounded on Thursday when gunmen at a fake checkpoint attacked their convoy in the village of Sulaiman Beq in Salahaddin province, police said. Zebari was not in the convoy, police added. Two gunmen were killed in the incident.

BAGHDAD - A sniper shot dead an Iraqi soldier in the Sunni- dominated district of Adhamiya on Thursday, police said.

BAGHDAD - Gunmen killed a policeman in the Amil district of Baghdad on Thursday, police said.

KIRKUK - One civilian was killed and three wounded in a roadside bomb attack on Thursday in the northern city of Kirkuk.

MOSUL - Four bodies were found on Thursday in the northern city of Mosul, police said. Three of them were policemen.

From Reuters/Alternet