Security Summary: July 3, 2007

Above: A neighbor holds Qassem Abdullah's family photograph, salvaged from the rubble of their home in Diwaniyah after it was destroyed in a U.S. air strike Tuesday, killing all of his four children. Qassem, his wife and sister are hospitalized in serious condition.

BAGHDAD - A car bomb killed 18 people and wounded 35 near a market in a Shi'ite neighbourhood of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - Eighteen bodes were found in different parts of the capital on Tuesday, police said.

MADAEN - Two people were killed and four wounded when gunmen opened fire on pedestrians in Madean, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad.

RAMADI - U.S. forces killed at least 23 insurgents suspected of links to al Qaeda in fighting over the weekend near Ramadi, 110 km (68 miles) west of Baghdad, the military said on Tuesday.

KIRKUK - A car bomb targeting a police colonel's convoy killed two civilians and wounded 19 others, including seven policemen, in central Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - Coalition forces killed three suspected militants and detained 29 others during raids in western and central Iraq on Tuesday, the U.S. military said.

SAMARRA - At least two civilians were killed during clashes between police commandos and gunmen in Samarra, 100 km (62 miles) north of Baghdad on Monday, police said.

MOSUL - Police killed one gunman and arrested 19 other suspects in Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

ISKANDARIYA - Gunmen hijacked four fuel tankers near Iskandariya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

KIRKUK - A woman was wounded when Iraqi soldiers opened fire in central Kirkuk, police said.

HAWIJA - Three policemen were seriously wounded when a gunman threw a grenade at their vehicle in Hawija, 70 km (43 miles) southwest of Kirkuk, police said.

BABIL - Iraqi police on Sunday detained an alleged commander of the Mehdi Army militia of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in Mahaweel, 75 km (50 miles) south of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

TIKRIT - A U.S. soldier was killed by a roadside bomb on Monday while on combat operations in Salahideen province in north central Iraq, the U.S. military said. Two other U.S. soldiers were hurt.

KIRKUK - A car bomb targeting a police patrol killed two civilians and wounded nine others, including four policemen in Kirkuk, police said.

CAMP FALLUJA - Two U.S. soldiers died in a non-hostile related accident in Iraq's western Anbar province on Sunday, the U.S. military said.

NEAR FALLUJA - A suicide car bomb targeting a prominent tribal leader in Falluja, Sheik Kamel Mohammed al-Essawi, killed four civilians and wounded 10 others, police said. Al-Essawi opposes al-Qaeda in Iraq.

BAGHDAD - Gunmen assassinated a police intelligence major in central Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - A U.S. helicopter was shot down by insurgents near Baghdad on Monday, but its two pilots escaped with only minor wounds, the U.S. military said.

From Reuters/Alternet