Security Summary: March 28, 2007

Men chant slogans during a demonstration in Basra today demanding that British forces release prisoners in Basra

TAL AFAR - Shi'ite gunmen stormed a Sunni district in Tal Afar overnight, killing 50 or more men in apparent reprisal for truck bombings on Tuesday, Iraqi officials said. Major-General Khorshid Saleem, the head of the Third Army Division in Tal Afar, said the death toll was 70, with 30 wounded and 40 kidnapped. The prime minister ordered an inquiry into reports the gunmen included policemen, an official in his office said.

TAL AFAR - The toll from Tuesday's twin truck bombings in Shi'ite areas of Tal Afar rose to 55 dead and 185 wounded, police and hospital sources said.

FALLUJA - Two suicide bombers in trucks carrying chlorine attacked a local government building in Falluja, in western Iraq, and 15 Iraqi and U.S. security forces were injured in the bomb blasts, the U.S. military said. A number were treated for symptoms linked to chlorine gas inhalation. A police source said eight Iraqi soldiers were killed in the attack.

MAHAWEEL - A car bomb in a crowded market killed five people and wounded 25 in Mahaweel, 75 km (50 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

NEAR BAQUBA - Iraqi and U.S. soldiers killed more than 25 insurgents from an al Qaeda-led militant group near the city of Baquba, north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said. 15 suspected militants were detained in the four-day operation.

BAGHDAD - A car bomb killed two civilians and wounded 10 others when it was detonated at a major intersection in southern Baghdad's mainly Shi'ite Bayaa district, police said.

BAGHDAD - A U.S. soldier was killed and another wounded from indirect fire -- a term usually used for mortars or rockets -- in Baghdad's heavily fortified international Green Zone on Tuesday, the U.S. military said.

BAGHDAD - A U.S. government contractor was killed as a result of a rocket attack on the Green Zone on Tuesday, the U.S. embassy said in a statement.

ANBAR PROVINCE - Insurgents killed a U.S. Marine on Tuesday in Anbar Province, the U.S. military said.

ANBAR PROVINCE - U.S. forces captured 19 suspected insurgents believed to have ties to al Qaeda in Iraq, the U.S. military said. 11 were captured in different parts of Anbar and eight were captured in Baghdad.

RAMADI - A suicide car bomb killed one civilian and wounded seven others north of Ramadi on Tuesday, the U.S. military said. U.S. forces also found a truck rigged with explosives carrying chlorine nearby.

KIRKUK - A roadside bomb killed one person and wounded two others when it struck a police patrol in the northern city of Kirkuk, police said.

SUWAYRA - Police found the bodies of five people, including one that was decapitated, floating in the Tigris river south of Baghdad in Suwayra, police said. The bodies had signs of torture.

BASRA - A British soldier was shot and wounded at police headquarters in the southern city of Basra, a British military spokesman said. "His condition is not graded as very serious," the spokesman said, giving no further details of his injuries. Asked about Iraqi police reports that a sniper was responsible, the spokesman said: "We don't know if he was a sniper or not."

MOSUL - A roadside bomb targeting an Iraqi police patrol wounded a senior police officer in Mosul, in northern Iraq, police said. Another roadside bomb in Mosul targeting police wounded four more people, police said.

From Reuters/Alternet