Saturday, April 21, 2007
Round-up of violence across Iraq
Security
(Reuters) - Following are security developments in Iraq as of 1100 GMT on Saturday:
* denotes new or updated items
* MUSSAYAB - Mussayab mayor Mehdi Abdul Hussein al-Najem and two of his bodyguards were killed in an ambush, police said. A roadside bomb exploded next to their vehicles in the attack at Mussayab, 60 km (40 miles) south of Baghdad, and gunmen then opened fire.
BAGHDAD - One soldier was killed and two others were wounded when they were hit by a roadside bomb during a patrol southwest of Baghdad, the U.S. military said
KHALIS - The bodies of eight people were found in Khalis, 80 km (50 miles) north of Baghdad, a police source said. All showed signs of torture and four had been beheaded.
BAGHDAD - A bomb planted in a minibus in Baghdad's Shi'ite stronghold of Sadr City killed up to two people and wounded about five others, police said. Another bus next to it was also hit by the blast.
KIRKUK - Gunmen stormed a house and killed four members of the same family -- a wife, husband and their two children -- in the city of Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad.
DIWANIYA - One Polish soldier was killed and four more were wounded in a roadside bomb attack near Diwaniya, 180 km (112 miles) south of Baghdad, on Friday, Poland's Ministry of Defence said.
BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb attack on a U.S. military patrol wounded two soldiers at Baladiat, east of Baghdad, Iraqi police said.
MUSSAYAB - An Iraqi civilian was found shot dead in Mussayab, police said.
* denotes new or updated items
* MUSSAYAB - Mussayab mayor Mehdi Abdul Hussein al-Najem and two of his bodyguards were killed in an ambush, police said. A roadside bomb exploded next to their vehicles in the attack at Mussayab, 60 km (40 miles) south of Baghdad, and gunmen then opened fire.
BAGHDAD - One soldier was killed and two others were wounded when they were hit by a roadside bomb during a patrol southwest of Baghdad, the U.S. military said
KHALIS - The bodies of eight people were found in Khalis, 80 km (50 miles) north of Baghdad, a police source said. All showed signs of torture and four had been beheaded.
BAGHDAD - A bomb planted in a minibus in Baghdad's Shi'ite stronghold of Sadr City killed up to two people and wounded about five others, police said. Another bus next to it was also hit by the blast.
KIRKUK - Gunmen stormed a house and killed four members of the same family -- a wife, husband and their two children -- in the city of Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad.
DIWANIYA - One Polish soldier was killed and four more were wounded in a roadside bomb attack near Diwaniya, 180 km (112 miles) south of Baghdad, on Friday, Poland's Ministry of Defence said.
BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb attack on a U.S. military patrol wounded two soldiers at Baladiat, east of Baghdad, Iraqi police said.
MUSSAYAB - An Iraqi civilian was found shot dead in Mussayab, police said.
Labels: ambush, Baghdad, bomb, Diwaniya, gunmen, Khalis, Kirkuk, Mehdi Abdul Hussein al-Najem, Mussayab, roadside bombs
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
In escalation of mass kidnappings 22 shephards seized
Security
(AFP) - Gunmen wearing police uniforms seized 22 shepherds and their sheep in southern Iraq on Wednesday in the latest mass abduction of Shiite workers by presumed Sunni insurgents. Travelling in three cars, the kidnappers swooped on the shepherds in an isolated desert area north of the Shiite shrine city of Karbala and took their truck, herd and weapons, said Karbala police spokesman Rahman Mushawi.
The victims were forced into vehicles and driven towards the neighbouring Sunni province of Al-Anbar, a hotbed of Al-Qaeda and Sunni insurgents opposed to the Shiite-led government and its US backers. Eleven electricity plant workers were killed in an ambush as they drove to work in northern Iraq on Wednesday, while gunmen staged a mass kidnap at a fake security checkpoint south of Baghdad, police said. The violence comes as Iraqi and U.S. military commanders warn that militants are shifting the focus of their attacks to outside Baghdad, where thousands of U.S. and Iraqi troops have taken to the streets to crack down on sectarian bloodletting.
Police said gunmen stopped a vehicle carrying 11 electricity workers near Hawija, about 70 km (40 miles) southwest of the northern city of Kirkuk, and then opened fire on the men inside. Seven of the workers died instantly while four others were fatally wounded and died later in hospital.
It was not clear whether the attack was linked to an ambush in the same area on Saturday, when gunmen shot dead eight civilian employees of an Iraqi military base. Four brothers were among the dead in that incident.
In the so-called "Triangle of Death", a Sunni insurgent stronghold south of Baghdad, gunmen manning a fake checkpoint kidnapped passengers traveling in six minibus taxis and a car, said an official in the police chief's office in the town of Hilla.
The incident took place on a main road from the capital, near an area called Latifiya. The official said it was not clear how many people had been seized, but the minibuses can carry up to 11 passengers, plus the driver.
Motorists who managed to escape the gunmen reported seeing the kidnap victims being taken in the direction of Latifiya.
The victims were forced into vehicles and driven towards the neighbouring Sunni province of Al-Anbar, a hotbed of Al-Qaeda and Sunni insurgents opposed to the Shiite-led government and its US backers. Eleven electricity plant workers were killed in an ambush as they drove to work in northern Iraq on Wednesday, while gunmen staged a mass kidnap at a fake security checkpoint south of Baghdad, police said. The violence comes as Iraqi and U.S. military commanders warn that militants are shifting the focus of their attacks to outside Baghdad, where thousands of U.S. and Iraqi troops have taken to the streets to crack down on sectarian bloodletting.
Police said gunmen stopped a vehicle carrying 11 electricity workers near Hawija, about 70 km (40 miles) southwest of the northern city of Kirkuk, and then opened fire on the men inside. Seven of the workers died instantly while four others were fatally wounded and died later in hospital.
It was not clear whether the attack was linked to an ambush in the same area on Saturday, when gunmen shot dead eight civilian employees of an Iraqi military base. Four brothers were among the dead in that incident.
In the so-called "Triangle of Death", a Sunni insurgent stronghold south of Baghdad, gunmen manning a fake checkpoint kidnapped passengers traveling in six minibus taxis and a car, said an official in the police chief's office in the town of Hilla.
The incident took place on a main road from the capital, near an area called Latifiya. The official said it was not clear how many people had been seized, but the minibuses can carry up to 11 passengers, plus the driver.
Motorists who managed to escape the gunmen reported seeing the kidnap victims being taken in the direction of Latifiya.
COMMENT: Mass sectarian kidnappings since the security crackdown are on the increase again. This could be due to death squad and militia activity increasing outside Baghdad. Alternatively the electricity workers could have been murdered for their 'cooperation' with the coalition either by Sunni militants or Shia extremists. The third possibility is that this is a new tactic being used by Al Qaeda to intensify sectarian violence. COMMENT ENDS.
Labels: abduction, Al Anbar, ambush, Hawija, Karbala, Latifiyah, mass kidnappings, shepards
