Security Summary: June 21, 2007

Left: Iraqis march in a peaceful protest today against the bombing of the Askari mosque.

BAGHDAD - Twenty bodies were found shot and tortured around Baghdad in the past 24 hours, police said. Most of them were found in the western, predominantly Sunni Arab side of the capital.

MADAEN - A suicide truck bomber blew up near a building housing police commandos in Madaen, 45 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, killing two policemen and wounding 12, police said.

BAGHDAD - One person was killed and three wounded when a mortar round landed in the Shi'ite Abu Dshir district of southern Baghdad, police said.

SULAIMAN BEK - A suicide truck bomber killed at least 18 people and wounded 75 when he rammed his vehicle into the municipal headquarters of Sulaiman Bek, about 90 km (60 miles) south of Kirkuk, collapsing part of the building and demolishing nearby houses, police said.

NEAR HILLA - Gunmen killed Hussein Ali, the head of Moqtada al-Sadr's office in the town of al-Sedda, and another Sadr official in a drive-by shooting late on Wednesday, police and Sadr officials said. Al-Sedda is near Hilla, 100 km (60 miles) south of Baghdad.

BAGHDAD - Iraqi special forces detained a key insurgent leader in a raid on the Mehdi Army stronghold of Sadr City in Baghdad on Wednesday, the U.S. military said. He is accused of co-ordinating and taking part in kidnappings, death squad killings and roadside bomb attacks.

BAQUBA - A U.S. air strike on a booby-trapped house in Baquba north of Baghdad on Wednesday missed its target and hit a nearby structure, wounding 11 people, the U.S. military said, adding that the incident was under investigation.

MAHMUDIYA - The U.S. military said it had launched Operation Command Eagle, a joint operation with Iraqi troops targeting militants southwest of Baghad. It said soldiers had seized weapons caches and CDs explaining how to shoot down helicopters.

From Reuters/Alternet