Security Summary: July 18, 2007

Above: A man grieves for two young women as their coffins are carried to Najaf for burial today. The two were killed by a booby-trapped car bomb which exploded shortly after their father drove home and parked it following his release from a kidnapping.

ISKANDARIYA - Chief of police of Iskandariya and five bodyguards abducted during clashes in the town 40 km (25 miles) south Baghdad, police said. One badly injured bodyguard was later found.

BAQUBA - One villager killed and 15 others wounded by gunmen who stormed a Shi'ite village in Diyala, two days after 29 were shot dead in a nearby Shi'ite community, police said.

KUT - Three sisters seriously wounded by a mortar round that struck their home in the southern city of Kut, police said.

JURF AL-SAKHAR - Two civilians killed and four wounded by a roadside bomb near Jurf al-Sakhar, 85 km south of Baghdad, police said.

MAHAWEEL - Two bodies dumped in Mahaweel, 75 km south of Baghdad, police said.

KIRKUK - One civilian shot dead in front of his home in a drive by shooting in a southern part of Kirkuk, police said.

DAQUQ - Badly mutilated body with multiple gunshot wounds dumped in Daquq, 45 km south of Kirkuk, police said.

TARMIYA - Three suspected militants killed and two others detained by U.S. forces in Tarmiya, north of Baghdad, the military said.

BAGHDAD - Three U.S. soldiers killed in Baghdad on Tuesday, the military said. One soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in east Baghdad which also wounded four other soldiers. Two soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in west Baghdad.

NASSIRIYA - Clashes between Mehdi Army of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and Iraqi police in the southern Shi'ite city of Nassiriya, police said. No reports of casualties.

BAGHDAD - At least six people killed by a pair of roadside bombs in the al-Amin area of south east Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - The bodies of 24 people were found shot in different districts of Baghdad on Tuesday, police said.

From Reuters/Alternet