Thursday, October 19, 2006
Mosul hit by coordinated attacks, Mahdi Army fights Iraqi police in Amara
Security
A deadly series of bomb attacks in three Iraqi towns has marked another day of brutal violence that left scores of people dead as a fierce debate over how to prosecute the war gripped Washington. The northern city of Mosul shuddered Thursday under 10 apparently coordinated attacks erupting at 20-minute intervals, including several suicide car bombs, mortar fire and small arms assaults against US-led forces and Iraqi police. Further south in the oil city of Kirkuk two suicide attacks a total of 18 people, while in the Shiite market town of Khalis in Diyala province a bomb in a crowded market killed 17 shoppers, police and medics said.
According to US military spokesman Major General Caldwell, the past three weeks have seen a shift in focus of attacks from civilians to both US and Iraqi security forces. US forces now lose an average of four soldiers a day and are thus on course to lose more in October than in any month since the battle of Fallujah in November 2004.
According to US military spokesman Major General Caldwell, the past three weeks have seen a shift in focus of attacks from civilians to both US and Iraqi security forces. US forces now lose an average of four soldiers a day and are thus on course to lose more in October than in any month since the battle of Fallujah in November 2004.
Meanwhile in the southern city of Amara "rogue elements" of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia fought a pitched battle with Iraqi police, forcing the Iraqi Army to send reinforcements into the town. "Three gunmen and four civilians were killed, and 35 people are wounded, including police, insurgents and civilians," said Zamil al-Oreibi, medical director of the city healthy department. "There are more police casualties, but they have not been recovered yet. The fighting is still going on," he added. Military spokesman Major Charlie Burbridge said British forces were on stand-by to support the Iraqi troops if needed.
In other violence, five people were killed, including two police, in a bomb attack against a police convoy, and Brigadier General Kadhim Mahdi of the border police was assassinated in the south Baghdad neighborhood of Saidiyah. Across Diyala province, aside from the blast in Khalis, northeast of Baghdad, nine people were killed in separate incidents.
In other violence, five people were killed, including two police, in a bomb attack against a police convoy, and Brigadier General Kadhim Mahdi of the border police was assassinated in the south Baghdad neighborhood of Saidiyah. Across Diyala province, aside from the blast in Khalis, northeast of Baghdad, nine people were killed in separate incidents.
