Security Summary: March 24, 2007

Neighbors gather Thursday at the site of a bomb crater in Ramadi, where a U.S. airstrike destroyed two houses.

FALLUJA - A U.S. soldier was killed in combat in Anbar province on Friday, the U.S. military said.

BAGHDAD - A U.S. soldier was killed by a roadside bomb while on foot patrol south of Baghdad on Friday, the U.S. military said.

QAIM - Three car bombers launched almost simultaneous attacks against a police station and checkpoints in western Iraq, near the Syrian border. Intelligence officer Hassan Abed Mottar said 10 people were killed, including seven policemen, and 18 more police were wounded.

HILLA - A suicide truck bomber exploded near a Shi'ite mosque in the town of Haswa about 60 km (40 miles) south of Baghdad, police said. Hilla hospital said at least nine people were killed and 43 wounded. Police said eight were killed. The Babil provincial health directorate said 16 were killed and 45 wounded.

TAL AFAR - A suicide bomber in a market in the town of Tal Afar in northwestern Iraq killed 10 people and wounded 3, the mayor said.

FALLUJA - The bodies of 12 people were found in Falluja, in western Iraq, police said.

FALLUJA - Iraqi and U.S. forces clashed with gunmen in Falluja and a medical source said four people were killed.

RUTBA - In the Rutba area near the Jordanian border, the U.S. military said it killed three suspected insurgents in an air strike on their car. A fourth suspect blew himself up. A U.S. statement said U.S. forces detained 12 more suspects in other operations against al Qaeda and foreign fighter facilitators in Mosul and Baghdad.

BAGHDAD - A suicide bomber driving a truck packed with explosives attacked a police station in the volatile southern Dora district of Baghdad, killing at least 20 people including 14 policemen and three detainees, a police source said. Another 26 people were wounded, mostly police.

DIWANIYA - The bullet-riddled body of a military intelligence officer was found in the centre of Diwaniya, 180 km (110 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - The bodies of 26 people were found shot dead in different parts of Baghdad on Friday, a police source said.

BAGHDAD - The final death toll from a twin bomb attack targeting Deputy Prime Minister Salam al-Zobaie rose to nine killed and 15 injured, a police source said. Another official, however, said eight people were killed.

MOSUL - Four bodies were found in the northern city of Mosul on Friday, a morgue official said. One was a policeman and another was a Kurd.

KIRKUK - Two Iraqi soldiers were killed and three wounded on Friday when gunmen attacked their patrol near Riyadh, a town 60 km (40 miles) southwest of Kirkuk, police said.

RAMADI - The head of a group of tribes in Anbar province that is opposed to al Qaeda said security forces found a truck loaded with chlorine. Earlier this month, militants detonated three car bombs loaded with chlorine, poisoning hundreds of people in Anbar.

From Reuters/Alternet