Security Summary: February 3, 2007

Soldiers secure the site of 1 of 7 car bombings in Kirkuk today

BAGHDAD - A suicide bomber killed 135 people on Saturday in the deadliest single bombing in Iraq since the 2003 war, driving a truck laden with one tonne of explosives into a market in a mainly Shi'ite area of Baghdad.

MAHMUDIYA - At least eight people were killed and 12 wounded when a car bomb exploded in a market 30 km (20 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - Two people were killed and 12 wounded in a mortar attack in Nahrawan in Baghdad, police said.

KIRKUK - Seven car bombs, all detonated within a couple of hours, killed at least two civilians and wounded 34 across the ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk, police sources said. Two of the vehicles targeted the offices of the two main Kurdish parties in the city, including one driven by a suicide bomber.

SAMARRA - Insurgents killed four police commandos and wounded three when they attacked their checkpoint on the main road just north of Samarra, police said. Three insurgents were also killed in the attack.

BAGHDAD - Iraqi security forces found 23 unidentified bodies around Baghdad on Friday, police said. Many were believed to be victims of communal fighting.

FALLUJA - Police found the bodies of five civilians dumped in a public square in the city of Falluja, witnesses said.

ANBAR PROVINCE - Two U.S. soldiers died on Friday from their wounds after an insurgent attack in the rebellious desert province of Anbar, the U.S. military said.

ANBAR PROVINCE - A U.S. Marine and a U.S. sailor died on Thursday from wounds sustained in an attack by insurgents in Anbar, the U.S. military said.

MAHMUDIYA - A car bomb killed one civilian and wounded nine in the religiously-mixed town of Mahmudiya, south of Baghdad, police sources said.

MOSUL - Police said insurgents killed two Iraqi soldiers, and three people were shot dead in separate incidents, in the northern city of Mosul on Friday.

KUT - The Iraqi army said troops arrested six militants on Friday in the Shi'ite city of Kut, 170 km (105 miles) southeast of Baghdad. They belonged to a shadowy Shi'ite sect involved in last week's fighting near the holy city of Najaf. The army said it found a large weapons cache left over from the fighting.

DHULUIYA - Gunmen killed a policeman in the small town of Dhuluiya, 70 km (45 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

ISKANDARIYA - Police found one body with gunshot wounds to his head in the town of Iskandariya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

KUT - Gunmen killed Jaishi al-Ameer, a lawyer who police said defended militants, in Kut on Friday, police sources said.

From Reuters/Alternet