Security Summary: June 18, 2007

Above: An Iraqi soldier guards men detained in Baqouba today. Under emergency powers, arrest may be made upon suspicion, and no trial need ever be held, nor the detainees ever released.

SAMARRA - A car bomb killed five Interior Ministry special forces personnel and wounded six others in the town of Samarra, north of Baghdad, police said.

BALAD - Gunmen killed two Iraqi soldiers when they ambushed a checkpoint near Balad, north of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - U.S.-led coalition forces killed at least 20 militants after coming under attack from Shi'ite gunmen during raids in southern Maysan province on Monday, the U.S. military said. An official in the office of anti-U.S. Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in the Maysan capital Amara said 17 members of his Mehdi Army had been killed and 45 wounded.

BAGHDAD - A U.S. soldier was killed by a roadside bomb while on foot patrol in the southern part of the capital, the U.S. military said on Monday. It did not make clear when the incident occurred.

FALLUJA - Two people were killed and 10 wounded by a truck bomb in central Falluja, 50 km (32 miles) west of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

MOSUL - The bodies of three brothers were found outside Mosul, 390 km north of Baghdad, the police said. They had been shot.

BAGHDAD - Nine people were killed and 25 wounded when two car bombs exploded in quick succession as motorists queued for petrol in the southern Saidiya district of Baghdad, police said. Eight cars were set on fire.

NEAR BAGHDAD - Gunmen killed eight policemen when they attacked their convoy on Sunday on a road in the town of Mishahda, north of Baghdad, said police at a Baghdad hospital where the bodies were brought. Another police source said four policemen were killed and four wounded.

FALLUJA - Three people were killed and 15 wounded in a car bomb attack at a popular market in the Sunni Arab stronghold of Falluja, 50 km west of Baghdad, police said.

NASSIRIYA - At least four people were killed and 54 wounded in clashes between gunmen loyal to cleric Sadr and police in the southern Shi'ite city of Nassiriya, 375 km south of Baghdad, hospital and police sources said.

BAQUBA - Gunmen attacked the office of Mohammed Abid, a manager in the Diyala electricity station, and shot him dead in the city of Baquba, police said.

BAGHDAD - The bodies of five people were found in different districts of Baghdad on Sunday, police said.

BAGHDAD - U.S. forces detained 11 suspected insurgents during operations Sunday and Monday to disrupt al Qaeda car bomb networks in Baghdad and Haditha, the U.S. military said.

From Reuters/Alternet