Winks Blog

8 Iraqis Killed and 4 Bodies Found

Good morning,

Insurgents have been pretty busy today, targeting more innocent victims.

In Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad, gunmen driving a red Opel assassinated a senior official of Iraq's anti-corruption commission and the deputy director of a state-run food stuff company in separate attacks Thursday, police Capt. Farhad Talabani said.

Anti-corruption official Othman Majeed Rasheed, a 51-year-old Turkoman, was walking from his home to his nearby office when he was killed by a hail of gunfire, Talabani said.

Shortly after, the same group of gunmen shot dead Jomaa Rasheed, a Kurd who is the deputy director of the state-run company for food stuffs, in the same area, Talabani said. The two victims were unrelated.

Police believe the men were killed by the same masked gunmen who launched similar attacks on Jan. 17, targeting another Kirkuk office of the anti-corruption watchdog, known as the Integrity Commission, and offices for the Kurdistan Peoples Party, killing two people and wounding three.

Shiite cleric Fayez Mahmoud al-Moussaoui was killed after being caught in the crossfire between Iraqi soldiers and gunmen clashing in western Baghdad's Baiyaa district, police Lt. Maitham Abdul-Razzaq said.

Zaid Attah, a retired Trade Ministry employee, was shot dead by gunmen who broke into his home in western Baghdad's Amariyah neighborhood, police Capt. Qassim Hussein said.

Gunmen disguised as Iraqi soldiers kidnapped Hadi al-Dahlaki, owner of a food company, and killed his son Wednesday during a raid on their factory in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, Diyala police said. The al-Dahlaki family is one of Baqouba's wealthiest, and several of the hostage's sons have been kidnapped and released previously after the paying of ransoms.

Police found four bound and blindfolded bodies riddled with bullet holes Thursday in Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles south of Baghdad, said Capt. Rasheed al-Samaraei.

North of Baghdad, three Iraqi soldiers were killed and four wounded by a roadside bomb Wednesday afternoon, police Lt. Amir al-Ahbabi said.

The attack happened in the Ishaki area on the Baghdad-Mosul highway, about 55 miles north of the Iraqi capital.

Have a nice day.

posted by Wink @ 9:57 AM