Security Summary: March 3, 2007

An Iraqi soldier holds a machine gun on new Huey II helicopter, among the 16 donated to Iraq by Jordan and refitted and upgraded in the United States at a cost of $56 million.

BAGHDAD - Three U.S. soldiers were killed on Saturday by a roadside bomb that hit their vehicle in central Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

RAMADI - A suicide car bomb killed 12 people, including three policemen and a child, when it blew up at a police checkpoint in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi, police said. Lieutenant Colonel Tareq Yussuf said another 22 people were wounded, including police and civilians.

BAGHDAD - The body of an Iraqi journalist was found on Wednesday in Baghdad's Amil district after he was kidnapped for several days, the Iraqi Association for the Protection of Journalists said. Jamal al-Zubaidi was the editor of the local al-Saffir newspaper.

YUSUFIYA - Insurgents killed six Sunnis from one family in the town of Yusufiya, 15 km (10 miles) south of Baghdad, police said. The Sunnis had received death threats after attending a reconciliation conference with Shi'ites in the area.

LATIFIYA - A roadside bomb killed a woman and her two children whilst they were travelling on foot to commemorate a major Shi'ite event, police said. The attack occurred near the insurgent-stronghold of Latifiya, just south of Baghdad.

TIKRIT - A roadside bomb killed three policemen and wounded three more when it hit a police convoy on the road to Tikrit, police said. The men guards of Major General Hamid Al Namis, provincial head of police in Salahaddin province.

ISKANDARIYA - A mortar barrage killed two people and wounded four in a residential area of Iskandariya, police said.

BAGHDAD - The U.S. military said an airstrike in Arab Jabour in southern Baghdad killed seven al Qaeda suspects thought responsible for a large number of suicide car bombs.

BAGHDAD - A former army officer named Thabed Sultan was kidnapped in Baghdad, a police source said.

BAGHDAD - The U.S. military said a security detainee died at a prison called Camp Cropper from apparent injuries caused by other detainees who assaulted him.

HAWIJA - Gunmen killed one civilian and seriously wounded two others on a commercial street in the Sunni town of Hawija, 70 km (43 miles) southwest of Kirkuk, police said. The source said the gunmen were targeting members of an anti-Qaeda tribe.

ISKANDARIYA - Police said they found one unidentified body in the town of Iskandariya, south of Baghdad.

HILLA - An elite Iraqi force arrested a suspected rogue militia leader on Friday who was responsible for building roadside bombs used against U.S. forces, the U.S. military said.

NEAR BAGHDAD - Iraqi and U.S. soldiers arrested 42 suspected insurgents just south of Baghdad on Thursday, the U.S. military said. Those detained are suspected of storing weapons and explosives to equip the insurgency south of Baghdad.

From Reuters/Alternet