Security Summary: July 11, 2007

Above: Iraqis crowd aid workers for food and supplies during a distribution of humanitarian aid to around 500 families displaced by violence in Karbala.

BAGHDAD - Gunmen killed at least 11 people when they locked them inside a house in the town of Garma west of Baghdad and then blew it up, the U.S. military said. A spokesman said it may have been a "vendetta attack" against the owner who is involved with the provincial security forces.

BAGHDAD - Police found 200 suicide belts and packs of explosives on a truck that had entered Iraq from neighbouring Syria, the Interior Ministry said. The truck had been stopped along the Syrian-Iraqi border.

BAGHDAD - Police said they found 30 bodies on the streets of Baghdad, victims of sectarian death squads. They said eight bodies were found in the Sunni district of Doura alone.

BAGHDAD - U.S. and Iraqi forces killed 20 suspected al Qaeda in Iraq militants in a two-day operation north of Baghdad this week, the U.S. military said.

BAGHDAD - The U.S. military said eight suspected militants were killed during raids in eastern Baghdad on Monday.

GARMA - At least seven members of one family were killed when gunmen broke into their house in Garma, west of Baghdad, and planted explosives inside and blew it up, police said.

SAMARRA - The mayor of Samarra, a mainly Sunni city 100 km (62 miles) north of Baghdad, was shot dead, police said.

BAGHDAD - Police found 26 bodies in Baghdad on Tuesday.

TIKRIT - U.S. soldiers handed over 12 bodies to the general hospital in Tikrit, 175 km (110 miles) north of Baghdad on Tuesday, said Iyada al- Jugheifi, head of the hospital's morgue. It was unclear how the people died.

BAGHDAD - At least four policemen were killed and two others wounded when gunmen attacked their patrol in northern Baghdad on Tuesday evening, police said.

ISKANDARIYA - At least two people were killed and 17 wounded when four mortar bombs landed in a residential area in Iskandariya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad on Tuesday evening, police said.

ISKANDARIYA - Gunmen killed a civil servant when they broke into his home in Iskandariya on Tuesday evening, police said.

BAGHDAD - Gunmen attacked a police commando checkpoint, killing one policeman in the Saidiya district of southern Baghdad on Tuesday, police said. Eight civilians were wounded.

FALLUJA - A suicide motorcycle bomber attacked a police patrol on Tuesday, wounding two policemen in Falluja, 50 km (32 miles) west of Baghdad, police said.

HASWA - Police found two bodies showing signs of torture in Haswa, 50 km (30 miles) south of Baghdad on Tuesday, police said.

DIWANIYA - Gunmen killed a policeman inside his car in Diwaniya, 180 km (112 miles) south of Baghdad on Tuesday, police said.

NAJAF - Gunmen on a motorcycle killed a police intelligence officer in northern Najaf on Tuesday evening, police said.

From Reuters/Alternet