11 Killed, 20 Bodies Found, 21 Wounded
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BAGHDAD,More insurgent violence was reported against civilians, with at least 11 people killed, including four children, and 21 others wounded when a suicide car bomber struck a wedding party in Baghdad
The suicide bomber who targeted the Baghdad wedding drove an explosives-rigged sedan into a crowd of Shiite celebrants outside the bride's home in the northeastern Shaab neighborhood at 4:50 p.m., police Lt. Ahmed Mohamed said.
Weddings and funerals are often public events in Iraq, making them relatively easy targets for suicide bombers hoping to spark reprisal attacks from Sunnis and push Iraq into a full-blown civil war.
Five other children were among those hospitalized for their injuries, said Dr. Qasim al-Suweadi of the nearby al-Sadr hospital. Many suffered severe burns over much of their bodies.
Three people were killed and five injured by a car bomb in Sadr City early Tuesday, a day after 33 were killed in a similar attack in the district targeting day laborers lining up for jobs.
Both attacks were carried out despite the U.S. security cordon, bringing accusations from residents that the checkpoints had decreased security by restricting the movement of Mahdi fighters.
At least three Iraqi policemen were also reported killed on Tuesday morning in Baghdad and the volatile western city of Fallujah, police said.
The bodies five unidentified people, including a woman, were found dumped early Tuesday morning in eastern Baghdad, police Maj. Mahir Hamid Mussa said. Those killed had been tied up and blindfolded, with their bodies showing signs of torture, Mussa said.
Five more bodies in similar condition were floating in the Tigris River near Suwayrah, 25 miles south of Baghdad, a clerk at the town morgue, Hadi al-Etabi, said.
Further south, the morgue in the town of Kut reported receiving 10 bodies, including those of five people allegedly killed by U.S. forces in a raid on a house in the Shejeriyah area, 18 miles south of Baghdad, said Maamoun Ajil al-Robaeie, a morgue employee.
New violence was also reported in Baqouba, a chaotic city north of Baghdad where police and militants fought bloody gunbattles last week.
Unidentified gunmen killed three people in a downtown market and attacked a police patrol, killing one officer and injuring two others, according to a spokesman for the Diyala provincial police.
Five bodies were found in the Abu Seida district, 25 kilometers (10 hectares) northeast of the city, said the police spokesman, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
Gunmen killed Sheik Raed Naeem al-Juheishi, the head of a non-governmental organization dedicated to tracing the fate of victims of the former regime of Saddam Hussein, in a drive-by-shooting Monday night in Baghdad's chaotic Dora district, Col. Mohammed Ali said.
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1,170 Iraqi Civilians Killed In October 2006
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According to an Associated Press count, October has also recorded more Iraqi civilian deaths _ 1,170 as of Monday _ than any other month since the AP began keeping track in May 2005. The next-highest month was March 2006, when 1,038 Iraqi civilians were killed in the aftermath of the Feb. 22 bombing of an important Shiite shrine in Samarra.
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80 Killed
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BAGHDAD, Iraq - At least 80 people were killed or found dead in Iraq on Monday, including 33 victims of a bomb attack on laborers lined up to find a day's work in Baghdad's Sadr city Shiite slum.
In other violence gunmen killed hard-line Sunni academic Essam al-Rawi, head of the University Professors Union, as he was leaving home. At least 156 university professors have been killed since the war began. Hundreds, possibly thousands, more are believed to have fled to neighboring countries, although Education Ministry spokesman Basil al-Khatib al-Khatib said he had no specific numbers on those who have left the country.
The explosion in the sprawling Shiite slum of Sadr City tore through food stalls and kiosks at 6:15 a.m. (0315 GMT), cutting down men who gather there each morning hoping to be hired as construction workers. At least 59 people were wounded, police Maj. Hashim al-Yasiri said.
Sadr City, is a stronghold of the Mahdi Army loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, and has been the scene of repeated bomb attacks by suspected al-Qaida fighters seeking to incite Shiite revenge attacks and drag the country into full-blown civil war.
Ali Abdul-Ridha, injured on in the head and shoulders, said he was waiting for a job with his brother and about 100 others when he heard a massive explosion and "lost sight of everything."
He said the area had been exposed to attack because U.S. and Iraqi forces had driven into hiding Mahdi fighters who usually provide protection in the tumbledown district on the northeast extreme of Baghdad.
"That forced Mahdi Army members, who were patrolling the streets, to vanish," the 41-year-old Abdul-Ridha said from his bed in al-Sadr Hospital, his brother lying beside him asleep.
However, Falih Jabar, a 37-year old father of two boys, said the Mahdi Army was responsible for provoking extremists to attack civilians in the neighborhood of 2.5 million people.
"We are poor people just looking to make a living. We have nothing to do with any conflict," said Jabar, who suffered back wounds. "If (the extremists) have problems with the Mahdi Army, they must fight them, not us," he added.
Also among those killed were a woman selling tea and three children ranging in age from 10 to 15 years, said police Capt. Khadhim Abbas Hamza and Rahim Qassim Jassim, deputy head of the local health directorate.
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15 Iraqi Police Killed, 23 Bodies Found, 5 Others Killed Around Iraq
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BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen killed 15 policemen working as instructors at the local police academy and two translators in the southern city of Basra, police said. The men were forced off a bus on the city's outskirts Sunday afternoon and their bodies were found hours later dumped in several locations, police said.
Basra is about 80 percent Shiite, Iraq's majority sect that makes up the bulk of the police and security forces nationwide, especially in the predominantly Shiite south. Most of the murdered policemen were believed to have been Shiite.
Gunmen also attacked an Iraqi government convoy and wounded a bodyguard of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, but the leader was not in the procession, officials said Sunday as violence rose in Baghdad after a post-Ramadan lull.
A mortar attack elsewhere in the capital killed four Iraqis and wounded four, while other gun assaults left two policemen and a civilian dead and two officers wounded. A kidnapped state television host and his driver also were found slain.
North of Baghdad, gunmen ambushed a convoy of Sunni pilgrims bound for Islam's holy city of Mecca and killed at least one person, with attacks across Iraq causing a total of at least 15 deaths. The bodies of 23 people also were found, most believed to be the victims of sectarian reprisal killings.
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12 Killed 35 Injured, 10 Bodies Found
Good evening,
Violence returned to the capital after a relative five-day calm following the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
One person was killed and 35 wounded when a rocket slammed into an outdoor market in Baghdad's turbulent southern neighborhood of Dora, while a bomb in a minibus killed a second person and wounded nine in an eastern district, police said.
Police also found 10 bodies of victims of apparent sectarian violence _ seven in several parts of Baghdad and three in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of the capital.
Eleven other people were reported killed in shootings and bomb attacks nationwide.
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12 Killed 35 Injured, 10 Bodies Found
Good evening,
Violence returned to the capital after a relative five-day calm following the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
One person was killed and 35 wounded when a rocket slammed into an outdoor market in Baghdad's turbulent southern neighborhood of Dora, while a bomb in a minibus killed a second person and wounded nine in an eastern district, police said.
Police also found 10 bodies of victims of apparent sectarian violence _ seven in several parts of Baghdad and three in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of the capital.
Eleven other people were reported killed in shootings and bomb attacks nationwide.
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A Special Comment About Lying
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If you have a few minutes, this is absolutely worth a watch:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1985322778346849934&pr=goog-sl
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10 Killed, 24 Wounded
Good Morning,
It has become a horrible statistic, but 40+ Iraqis lives are snuffed daily by the violence in that country. This blog reports only some of those deaths which are highlighted in the news.
Tank cannons boomed out over the Sadr City five times in rapid succession Wednesday afternoon, and U.S. F-16 jet fighters screamed low overhead as the conflict in Sadr City continued into the day.
Four people were killed and 18 wounded in overnight fighting in the overwhelmingly Shiite eastern district, according to Col. Khazim Abbas, a local police commander, and Qassim al-Suwaidi, director of the area's Imam Ali Hospital.
Scattered violence continued elsewhere in the country, with six people killed when a roadside bomb destroyed their vehicle in Balad Ruz, about 40 miles northeast of Baghdad. Other mortar and bomb attacks in the area wounded several people.
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11 Iraqis Killed, 14 Corpses Found
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Police reported that 11 Iraqis were killed in bombings and shootings, and 14 bullet-riddled bodies were found _ many showing signs of torture. The US Military has had 91 troops killed so far this month of October, More than 960 Iraqi Civilians have been killed during the same time period.
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At Least 950 Iraqis Killed So Far In Violence This Month
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Sunday's killings raised to at least 950 the number of Iraqis who have died in war-related violence this month, an average of more than 40 a day. The toll is on course to make October the deadliest month for Iraqis since April 2005, when The Associated Press began tracking the deaths.
Until this month, the daily average had been about 27. The AP count includes civilians, government officials and police and security forces, and is considered a minimum based on AP reporting. The actual number is likely higher, as many killings go unreported.
The United Nations has said at least 100 Iraqis are now killed daily.
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44 + Killed Around Country
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BAGHDAD, Iraq - Militants targeted police recruits and shoppers rounding up last-minute sweets and delicacies Sunday for a feast to mark the end of the Ramadan holy month, the highlight of the Muslim year. At least 44 Iraqis were reported killed across the country.
"There will be no holiday in Iraq," said Abu Marwa, a 46-year-old Sunni Muslim father of three who owns a mobile phone shop in the capital. "Anyone who says otherwise is a liar."
In Sunday's bloodiest attack, gunmen in five sedans ambushed a convoy of buses carrying police recruits near the city of Baqouba 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, killing at least 15 and wounding 25 others, said provincial police chief Maj. Gen. Ghassan al-Bawi. The recruits were returning home after an induction ceremony at a police base south of Baqouba.
A series of bombs also ripped through a Baghdad market and bakery packed with holiday shoppers, killing at least nine people and injuring dozens, police said. The attack came a day after a massive bicycle-bomb and mortar attack on an outdoor market killed 19 and wounded scores in Mahmoudiyah, just south of the capital.
The Iraqi Islamic Party issued a statement blaming Shiite militiamen for the attack in Mahmoudiyah, 20 miles south of Baghdad. The Sunni organization claimed Shiite militiamen had killed 1,000 residents in the town since the start of the year.
Iraq's main Sunni political bloc, the Iraqi Islamic Party, issued a statement Sunday blaming the Mahdi Army for provoking the violence in that city, 20 miles south of Baghdad.
"We call upon the people of Mahmoudiyah to stay calm in this holy month of Ramadan and not to give others an opportunity," Alaa Makki, a leading party member, said at a news conference in Baghdad.
Iraq has seen a surge in deaths during the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, which ends on Sunday for Sunnis. So far this month, an average of about 43 Iraqis have died each day, according to an Associated Press count. That compares to an average daily death toll of about 27 since April 2005.
The count is based on AP reporting and includes civilians, government officials and police and security forces. The actual number is likely higher, as many killings go unreported. The United Nations estimates about 100 Iraqi civilians are killed each day.
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18 Killed In Crowded Market, Dozens Injured
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BAGHDAD, Iraq - Mortar rounds rained down on a crowded outdoor market south of Baghdad on Saturday, killing at least 18 people and injuring dozens, police said.
A bicycle rigged with a bomb tore through the market in Mahmoudiyah first, followed by at least a dozen mortars, said army Capt. Oday Abdul Ridha.
Lt. Hayder Satar of the Mahmoudiyah police said 18 people were confirmed dead in the attack on the city about 20 miles south of Baghdad. He said 52 people were injured.
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21 Killed
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At least 21 were killed in violence around the country, including seven who died in a suicide bombing on a Baghdad bus and four killed in clashes Friday between Shiite and Sunni tribes just south of Baghdad. Five tortured bodies were found dumped along roads or in the Tigris River.
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29 Killed , 107 Injured
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Today, police in Mosul shot to death a martyr bomber driving a truck at high speed toward a police post, said Col. Khalaf Ismail. Although the post was saved, the gunfire ignited fuel and explosives on the truck, killing 12 people and wounding 25 _ mostly motorists lined up for gasoline at a nearby service station. Col. Abed Hamed al-Jibouri said 42 cars were destroyed in the blast.
In Kirkuk, a martyr bomber attacked a bank where civilians and army soldiers were waiting to get their wages. Twelve people, including four troops, were killed and 47 were wounded, said police Brig. Sarhat Qader
In the largely peaceful, Shiite-dominated south of the country, a fight broke out Thursday pitting Shiites against each other in Amarah. Clashes erupted between members of the Mahdi Army and policemen trying to stop the fighters from storming their headquarters. Eight people were killed, including five militiamen, and 35 were wounded, police and hospital officials said.
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708 Iraqis Killed (So Far) This Month
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Iraqi deaths are running at a high rate. According to an Associated Press count, 708 Iraqis have been reported killed in war-related violence this month, or just over 44 a day, compared to a daily average of more than 27 since the AP began tracking deaths in April 2005.
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15 Killed & 27 Wounded At Shiite Funeral
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Today two car bombs hit a Shiite funeral in Baghdad, killing 15 people and wounding 27, said Lt. Ahmed Mohammed Ali. The car bombs were staggered and killed both mourners and rescuers who were called to the scene in the eastern Ur neighborhood, he said.
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Brother Of Saddam Top Prosecutor Killed In Front of Wife
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BAGHDAD, Iraq - The brother of the top prosecutor in the second trial of Saddam Hussein was shot dead in front of his wife at his home in the capital Monday, according to a key official charged insuring no former members of the Saddam regime hold positions of authority.
Imad al-Faroon died immediately after the shooting at his home in west Baghdad, Dr. Ali al-Lami, head of the government De-Baathification Committee, told The Associated Press.
Al-Faroon's brother is chief prosecutor Muqith al-Faroon, who is leading the Saddam prosecution on charges of crimes against humanity in his alleged killing of thousands of Kurds during the Iran-Iraq war.
A verdict against Saddam Hussein and seven co-defendants charged with crimes against humanity in connection with an anti-Shiite crackdown in the 1980s will be announced Nov. 5, a senior court official said on Monday.
Sentences for those found guilty will be issued the same day, chief investigating judge Raid Juhi told The Associated Press.
The former Iraqi leader could be hanged if convicted. However, he could appeal the sentence to a higher, nine-judge court. His co-defendants include his former deputy, Taha Yassin Ramadan, and his half-brother and former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim.
The trial began a year ago with the eight defendants facing charges arising from the deaths of nearly 150 Shiites from the town of Dujail after a 1982 assassination attempt against Saddam in the town north of Baghdad.
That trial adjourned July 27 to allow its five-judge panel to consider a verdict. The court was to have reconvened Monday to hear a verdict.
"The Dujail trial will resume Nov. 5 when the presiding judge will announce the verdict and the sentencing," Juhi said.
Saddam is the chief defendant in another trial, facing genocide charges in connection with a government crackdown in the 1980s against Iraqi Kurds. The prosecution alleges about 180,000 people died in that campaign.
Saddam, his cousin "Chemical" Ali al-Majid and five other co-defendants could face death by hanging if convicted.
Hearings in the second trial are to resume Tuesday.
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Death Toll Swells To 91 In Civil War Surge
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BAGHDAD, Iraq - The death toll in a surge of sectarian killings in Balad swelled to at least 91 on Monday, police and army officials said, while bombings in and near Baghdad killed as many as up to 10 people. Eleven more bodies were found dumped in the capital.
Two Marines and a soldier were killed in fighting Sunday, bringing to ten the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq over the past three days.
The Marines, assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5, were killed in fighting in volatile Anbar province, while the soldier was killed when his vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb outside Baghdad.
Sectarian fighting exploded over the weekend in Balad and nearby regions, 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Baghdad. The bloodshed began with the slayings of 17 Shiite workers on Friday.
Shiites swiftly retaliated by setting up roadblocks, dragging off and killing those Sunnis they caught.
A police officer in the nearby Sunni-dominated town of Duluiyah said members of the Mahdi Army militia loyal to anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr had moved into the area and were killing Sunni men and boys.
Local police were aiding the militias, said the officer, repeating a common claim made against the Shiite-dominated security forces.
Balad is a predominantly Shiite city, ringed by Sunni-dominated villages, towns and farmland.
Bodies of victims of Balad's Sunni minority lay in the streets, while elderly people and women were being forced to leave the city, said the officer, who spoke on condition on anonymity for fear of reprisals.
Scores of terrified Sunnis had fled to Duluiyah and other neighboring towns, the policeman said.
Ahmed Ali, a 32-year-old Sunni truck driver who was trying to reach his wife's family in Balad, said Sunni families in neighboring towns have armed themselves to fight-off militia raids.
He said he'd been told his in-laws were killed on Friday.
"Militiamen gave them just two hours to leave the house. But after half an hour, they broke into the house and killed four of them," Ali said.
An army officer at provincial headquarters said authorities have counted 74 Sunnis killed since Friday.
The latest deaths came when Sunni houses were attacked with mortars late Sunday, killing five people, including a child, and injuring five others, said the officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to talk to media.
Despite those reports, a spokesman for the Iraqi Interior Ministry, which controls the police, denied knowledge of any widespread violence.
"The situation is calm," Brig. Abdul-Karim Khala said.
In Suwayrah, 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Baghdad, nine people were killed and 35 injured when a booby-trapped car exploded in a crowded market at about 11:00 a.m. (0800 GMT), the town's mayor, Hussein Mohammed al-Ghurabi, said.
Police earlier said ten people were killed and 48 injured in the attack, which set cars and shops aflame.
Elsewhere, a pair of bombs that exploded an hour apart on Baghdad's Rasheed Street killed one policeman. Iraqi insurgents have increasingly used secondary bombings to inflict further casualties on onlookers and rescue workers.
Two other roadside bomb attacks on Iraqi police patrols early Monday injured seven people.
The bullet-riddled bodies of 11 men were found dumped in the capital overnight, two of them found in a trash pit in Sadr City, the sprawling Shiite slum of about 2 million people
The identities of the victims, estimated to be in their early 20s and found bound and blindfolded, were not known, police Capt. Mohannad al-Bahadli said.
Nine other bodies, similarly bound and shot, were found in other Baghdad districts, police said.
Each day in Baghdad brings the discovery of up to scores of such victims, most believed to have been pulled off the street or abducted from their homes by roving sectarian death squads.
Those killings have steadily worsened over recent months as Iraq's Shiite majority battles to assert its authority over the Sunni minority who held power under Saddam Hussein's former regime.
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83 Killed In Civil War
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BAGHDAD, Iraq - At least 83 people were killed during a two-day spree of sectarian revenge killings, as Iraq's government said Sunday it was indefinitely postponing a much-anticipated national reconciliation conference.
Separately, the U.S. military reported the deaths of a Marine and four soldiers.
A brief statement from the Ministry of State for National Dialogue said only that the Iraqi political powers conference planned for Saturday had been put off because of unspecified "emergency reasons out of the control of the ministry."
The failure to bring Iraq's divided politicians together appeared likely to hurt Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's attempts to strengthen political consensus, underscoring the effect worsening violence is having on efforts to stabilize the U.S.-backed government and curb the bloodshed.
An Iraqi militant group that includes al-Qaida in Iraq announced Sunday in a video that it has established an Islamic Iraqi state, comprising six provinces _ including Baghdad _ that are largely Sunni and parts of two central provinces that are predominiately Shiite.
That statement came from the Mujahedeen Shura Council _ an umbrella organization of insurgent groups in Iraq that have be trying to drive out U.S. forces and topple Iraq's fragile government.
"We bring you good news of the founding and the formation of the Islamic Iraqi State ... to protect our people," said a man identified in the video as the group's spokesman.
The man in the eight minute video, which was posted on a Web site commonly used by insurgents, wore a traditional Arab robe and had his face blocked out.
Weekend revenge killings among Shiites and Sunnis left at least 63 people dead in a city north of Baghdad. Eleven people died Sunday in a series of apparently coordinated bombings on a girls school and other targets in the northern city of Kirkuk, where Kurds and Arabs are in a tense struggle for control of the oil-rich city.
Even by Iraq's bleak standards, October has been an especially bloody month. Hundreds of Iraqi's have died in attacks and 54 U.S. military personnel have been killed in the first two weeks alone.
U.S. commanders say that based on the record of past years, they expect a further spike in bloodshed throughout the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which ends in a week. Some Islamic militants believe that dying in combat during Ramadan brings extra blessings in paradise.
The tit-for-tat sectarian killings began late Friday with the discovery of the decapitated bodies of 17 Shiites kidnapped earlier in the day near Balad, a predominantly Sunni region northwest of Baghdad and a hotbed of the insurgency battling U.S. and Iraqi forces.
Suspected Shiite militiamen then began targeting Sunnis in Balad and surrounding towns, killing at least 46 overnight, according to police and hospital officials.
Extra police flooded into the area, 50 miles north of Baghdad, to enforce a curfew and additional security measures were taken in other villages in the area, Interior Ministry spokesman Brig. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said.
Despite that, bullet-ridden bodies continued to be delivered to the Balad's main hospital well into Sunday morning, according to a hospital director who asked that his name not be used for fear of reprisals.
An army officer in the nearby city of Tikrit confirmed the death toll and said 63 suspects _ both Sunnis and Shiites _ were arrested.
The Iraqi Islamic Party, the country's largest Sunni political group, said 30 Sunnis had been killed and accused the Shiite-dominated police force of cooperating with the militias in snatching 70 people from Balad hospital and other locations.
"The Iraqi Islamic party condemns the violence in Balad for which we hold the occupation forces and government fully responsible," the party said in a statement, using its standard term for the U.S. military presence.
In one of the Kirkuk bombings, two girls who died when a man detonated explosives strapped to his body in front of the Kurdish al-Mallimin girls high school in downtown Kirkuk, police officials said.
The American military said the Marine was killed in combat in Anbar province, the Sunni heartland west of Baghdad on Saturday.
Three soldiers died in a roadside bombing Saturday south of Baghdad, and one soldier was killed in a roadside bombing Friday night southwest of the capital. The soldiers' names were being withheld pending notification of their families.
In Baghdad Sunday, Interior Ministry undersecretary Hala Shakir Salim survived a roadside bomb attack that killed seven others.
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"A Comma"
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When the history of Iraq is finally written, the recent surge in sectarian violence is "going to be a comma," Bush said in several recent appearances.
Critics immediately complained that the remark appeared unsympathetic and dismissive of U.S. and Iraqi casualties, an assertion the White House disputed.
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14 People Killed, 17 Decapitated and Burned Bodies Found
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At least 14 people were killed Saturday, mostly in sectarian violence around the country.
Also, the bodies of 17 Shiite construction workers were found in an orchard outside Baghdad, kidnapped and decapitated in apparent retaliation for an attack on Sunni Arabs last week.
The workers' headless bodies were found Friday outside the city of Duluiyah, 45 miles north of Baghdad, along with four other unknown victims, also beheaded.
The killings of the workers were apparently retaliation for the kidnapping on Wednesday of three Sunni Arabs in Duluiyah by a Shiite militia, police said. The three were killed and their bodies burned.
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30+ Killed
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BAGHDAD (AP) — At least 30 people were killed Thursday in attacks in Iraq, including 11 in an assault on a new Sunni-Arab television station in Baghdad, while authorities found the mutilated bodies of more likely victims of the sectarian death squads that roam the capital.
Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell, the chief U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, said that since the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan about two weeks ago, attacks have been up 15% in Baghdad.
Ramadan "historically has been a period of increased violence," he said. "We assume it will still get worse before it gets better — we expect violence to continue to increase over the next two weeks until the end of Ramadan."
The raid on the southeastern Baghdad offices of Iraq's Shaabiya satellite station came around 7 a.m. local time, police Maj. Mahir Hamad said.
An unknown number of gunmen pulled up at the station in seven cars, stormed quickly into the offices and opened fire, then fled, station executive director Hassan Kamil told Associated Press Television News.
Kamil said 11 people had been killed, including technicians, two guards and the head of the station's board of directors.
"A group of armed men in seven cars stormed into the building and killed a group of our colleagues, including the head of the board of directors Abdel-Raheem Nasrallah," he said.
The station moved into the building in July and has not yet gone on the air, Kamil said.
The motivation behind the attack was not immediately clear, but it was the second attack on a television station in the capital in as many weeks.
On Oct. 1, a parked car bomb blew up outside the local al-Rafidain TV station. The blast killed two pedestrians and wounded five station employees, while blowing out windows of the building and causing other damage to the offices.
Meanwhile, police said the family of a 29-year-old Kurdish radio reporter who was abducted a week ago had identified his body in the Baghdad morgue.
Azad Mohammed Hussein was kidnapped in northeastern Baghdad by unidentified gunmen while on his way to Dar al-Salam radio headquarters in the capital's Shaab neighborhood. His body was turned into the morgue Tuesday and identified by his family on Wednesday, police Capt. Ali al-Obaidi said.
Another four people were killed and eight wounded when a suicide bomber on a motorcycle ran into a police patrol, police Lt. Ahmed Mohammed Ali said. Two policemen were among the dead in the attack in eastern Baghdad.
Elsewhere in the city, a synchronized bomb attack killed five and wounded 11 others, police Lt. Bilal Ali Majid said.
First a car bomb parked in central Baghdad's Qurtaba Square exploded, followed shortly afterward by second device planted on the roadside nearby, Majid said. One policeman was among the dead.
Insurgents are making increasing use of the tactic of detonating one bomb to draw attention to a spot, then a second to cause high casualties among onlookers and rescue workers.
In a similar attack, a bomb exploded at 7 a.m. local time near a Shiite mosque in the Qahira neighborhood of northeastern Baghdad. Two minutes later another bomb exploded nearby, wounding four people who had gathered at the place of the first explosion, police 1st Lt. Ahmed Mohammed Ali said.
In Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, a bomb attack in a residential district killed a woman and wounded six other people, police Capt. Laith Mohammed said.
In Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad, nine people were killed in four separate attacks, including the director of the provincial department for children's affairs who was shot dead by unidentified gunman with his son in their home, the provincial police said.
In Suwayrah, 25 miles down river from Baghdad, authorities fished four bodies out of the Tigris that showed signs of torture.
Two of the victims had their throats cut and two others had been shot, said Hadi al-Attan, an official with the Kut morgue where the bodies were taken. All were blindfolded and had their hands and legs bound, he said.
Eleven more bodies were found in the same area later, all with hands and legs bound, blindfolded and showing signs of torture, police Lt. Ali Abbas Abid said.
According to new figures from the Iraqi Health Ministry, more than 2,660 Iraqi civilians were killed in Baghdad in September_ 400 more than the month before despite an intensified U.S.-Iraqi sweep aimed at reining in violence.
The numbers indicate how tough the vital battle to secure Baghdad has proven amid a wave of bloodshed this year, not only from Sunni Arab insurgents but also from Shiite and Sunni death squads who kidnap and kill members of the opposing sect.
In Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, authorities found the severed head of a kidnap victim dumped at the side of a street in a black sack.
The victim was identified as a local man who had been kidnapped by unidentified gunmen from outside his home on Tuesday, police Lt. Mohammed Hassan said.
Outside Hillah, about 60 miles south of Baghdad, an insurgent was killed when the roadside bomb he was planting detonated, police Capt. Ahmed Mijawal said.
Elsewhere, in Diwaniyah, 80 miles south of Baghdad, gunmen broke into the city's Hamza police station, killing one policeman and freeing 10 prisoners who were being held on various criminal charges, police Lt. Raid Jabir said.
The raid came at 8:30 p.m. local time Wednesday, Jabir said.
New Study Released Says 600,000 Iraqis Died Since US Attack and Occupation
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By Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY
More than 600,000 Iraqis have died by violence since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, according to a study released Wednesday by researchers at Johns Hopkins University.
The figure is based on surveys of households throughout most of the country. It vastly exceeds estimates cited by the Iraqi government, the United Nations, aid and anti-war groups, and President Bush.
The new estimate was immediately challenged by the Pentagon. Lt. Col. Mark Bellesteros, a Pentagon spokesman, said the Iraqi government "would be in a better position ... to provide more accurate information on deaths in Iraq."
Frederick Jones, a spokesman for the National Security Council said "many experts" found that a 2004 study by the same group "wildly inflated the findings." That study said the war had caused 100,000 Iraqi deaths.
"This study appears to be equally flawed," he said. The new study said the deaths have resulted from coalition military activity, crime and religious violence.
ON DEADLINE: Read the report
At a White House press conference this morning, President Bush said "a lot of innocent people have lost their lives" in Iraq, but that "600,000 is not credible." He said he did not know, however, what a more accurate number would be.
The Iraqi government dismissed the Johns Hopkins estimate. The toll in the report "exceeds the reality in an unreasonable way" and the report "gives inflated numbers in a way that violates all rules of research and the precision required of research institutions," Iraq spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said in a statement.
"These numbers are far from the truth," al-Dabbagh said.
The Iraqi government has never given an official number of people killed since the U.S. invasion.
Iraq's Health Ministry has estimated 50,000 violent deaths since the war began, through June. Last December, President Bush put the figure at 30,000. The Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank, estimated the death toll at 60,000.
Overall, the analysis estimates that 2.5% of the Iraqi population has died as a result of the conflict.
The research relied on random sampling of 1,800 Iraqi households by researchers from the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and the School of Medicine at Al Mustansiriya University in Baghdad. Based on deaths suffered by those households, analysts calculated an average of about 600 deaths a day since the invasion.
"I think it's perfectly plausible," said the study's lead author, Gilbert Burnham, professor of international health at Johns Hopkins.
Then-British foreign secretary Jack Straw was among those who criticized the earlier study.
This time the researchers doubled the size of their random survey. In 92% of the homes in which residents reported deaths, families had death certificates, they said.
Beyond violent deaths, the study said about 53,000 deaths from other causes, such as accident and illness, were attributable to the war because of its effect on health care.
Gunfire was the leading cause of violent death; car bomb fatalities are rising, the study said.
James Fearon, a Stanford University political scientist and Iraq expert, said, "One thing (the study may) certainly do is confirm the view that there is a very, very serious civil war going in Iraq."
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2660 Iraqi Civilians Killed In Baghdad In September 06
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BAGHDAD, Iraq - More than 2,660 Iraqi civilians were killed in the capital in September amid a wave of sectarian killings and insurgent attacks, an increase of 400 over the month before, according to figures from the Iraqi Health Ministry.
The increase came despite an intensified U.S.-Iraqi sweep of Baghdad that was launched in mid-August to try to put down the wave of violence that has swept over the capital. The violence consists of a deadly combination of bombings and shootings by Sunni insurgents, and slayings by Shiite and Sunni death squads.
The September numbers come as a controversial new study contends that nearly 655,000 Iraqis have died in the three-year-old conflict in Iraq _ more than 10 times higher than other independent estimates of the toll.
President Bush dismissed as "just not credible" the study's estimate study that contends nearly 655,000 Iraqis have died because of the war.
Bush, who in the past has suggested 30,000 civilian deaths in Iraq, would not give a figure for overall fatalities. "A lot of innocent people have lost their life," he said at a news conference in Washington.
The study, which is to be published Thursday on the Web site of The Lancet, a medical journal, was based on a survey of households in Iraq, not a body count, and quickly raised skepticism among some Iraq experts.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said it was difficult "with any certainty" to estimate the number of Iraqi civilians who have died, and said the department does everything possible to prevent civilian casualties.
"We take great precautions in our military operations," he said. "That's in stark contrast to what the enemy in Iraq is doing. They take no such precautions. In fact, they deliberately target innocent civilians in their attacks."
An accurate count of total Iraqi deaths since the war's start has been difficult to obtain. According to an Associated Press tally, at least 13,414 Iraqis have been killed in war-related violence through Tuesday since the new government took office on April 28, 2005. Of those, 9,300 were civilians.
The AP tally is compiled from hospital, police and military officials cited in news stories, as well as accounts from reporters and photographers at the scenes. The actual number is likely higher as many killings go unreported or uncounted.
A private group called Iraqi Body Count says it has recorded about 44,000 to 49,000 civilian Iraqi deaths. But it notes that those totals are based on media reports, which it says probably overlook "many if not most civilian casualties."
The figures for the number of civilian deaths in September in Baghdad came in an official monthly report from the Health Ministry to the Cabinet on the number of Baghdad victims of violent deaths, two senior ministry officials told The Associated Press.
The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the government has issued orders that the death figures not be released. Civilian casualty numbers are always sensitive, and several other officials in the Health and Interior ministries contacted by the AP refused to give statistics.
The report said 2,667 civilians had died violent deaths in September _ an average of 89 a day. Those deaths include bodies found dumped around Baghdad and the victims of explosions, shootings and other attacks, the two officials said.
By comparison, 2,222 people died violently in August in Baghdad, according to a U.N. report published in September, which is also based on official statistics from the Health Ministry.
The two ministry officials said the U.N. number was accurate for the August deaths.
The monthly figures include two categories. One is the number of bodies found in Baghdad, provided from the city morgue, where the bodies are taken to determine the cause of death.
In September, the morgue reported 1,471 bodies of people who died from violence.
Shiite and Sunni death squads are known to kidnap members of the opposing sect, then dump bodies of their victims, often bound and tortured. So a large proportion of the 1,471 bodies are likely from sectarian killings _ though they also would include victims of criminal kidnappings and murders.
The other category included in the monthly figure encompasses the victims of explosions, shootings or other attacks, reported by hospitals. They numbered 1,196 in September, according to the report, the two Health Ministry officials said.
In August, 1,536 bodies were brought to the morgue, according to the U.N. report.
The past summer has seen a startling increase in bloodshed, centered in the capital, after the wave of sectarian violence was sparked by the February bombing of a Shiite shrine in the city of Samarra, north of Baghdad.
The deadliest month was July, when 3,590 people were killed across the country _ 2,884 of them in Baghdad, according to the U.N. The number killed countrywide fell in August to 3,009, the U.N. said.
The Health Ministry officials who spoke to the AP did not have September figures for the entire country, only for Baghdad.
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60 Mutilated Bodies Found in 24 hr. Period, 18 Killed Around Country, 350 - 400 + Police Poisoned
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BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's government forged ahead with a plan aimed at ending sectarian attacks, even as a bombing in the capital killed 10 people Tuesday and officials discovered scores of new death-squad victims.
The bomb, planted under a car in the mixed Sunni-Shiite neighborhood of Dora in south Baghdad, ripped through a line of people waiting in line outside a bakery _ the worst of the day's attacks, which left a total of 18 dead around the country.
The U.S. command announced the deaths of two more soldiers, one killed Monday on patrol in Baghdad and the other near Tikrit on Sunday when a roadside bomb blew up next to his vehicle.
The military also said Iraqi and U.S. troops killed at least nine fighters in clashes with the Mahdi Army _ Iraq's most powerful Shiite militia _ in the southern city of Diwaniya on Monday, the second straight day of battles there.
The fight started when two grenades were thrown at U.S. and Iraqi soldiers who had stopped to talk to Iraqi police, the military said in a statement. The patrol then came under fire from gunmen wearing Iraqi police uniforms, the statement said.
On Sunday, U.S.-Iraqi forces in Diwaniya battled for hours with members of the Mahdi Army, loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The military said 30 fighters were killed.
Authorities also discovered the mutilated bodes of 60 men in the 24-hour period ending Tuesday morning, police 1st Lt. Mohamed Khayon said. The bullet-riddled bodies found dumped in several Baghdad neighborhoods all had their hands and feet bound and showed signs of torture _ hallmarks of death-squad killings. The victims ranged in age from 20 to 50, he said.
Baghdad has been plagued by escalating sectarian violence that has seen thousands killed this year, and the Shiite-controlled Interior Ministry and its police forces have been accused of complicity in allowing militias to roam freely.
Under intense pressure to put an end to it, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki a week ago announced a four-point security plan aimed at uniting the divided parties behind efforts to stop Shiite-Sunni killings.
In a first step, officials said Tuesday that all security checkpoints in Baghdad would soon be manned by an equal number of Shiite and Sunni Arab troops to ensure the security forces do not allow sectarian attacks.
Al-Maliki's overall plan called for the creation of local Shiite-Sunni committees that will oversee policing in each district of Baghdad, reporting back to a Central Committee for Peace and Security to coordinate with the security forces and the prime minister.
The effort to balance the checkpoints that dot the streets of Baghdad underlines the deep mistrust between Shiites and Sunnis within al-Maliki's government. Each side accuses the other of backing militias, and Sunnis in particular say the Shiite-dominated police force often allows Shiite militias to carry out kidnappings and murders.
The parties agreed Saturday on the makeup of the central committee, said a member, Bassem Sherif, who represents the Shiite Fadila party on the body.
The committee includes four representatives each from the Shiite coalition that dominates parliament and the main Sunni coalition, along with one representative each from the Kurds and the Iraqi List, a mixed, secular party, Sherif said.
The parties also agreed each checkpoint in Baghdad will have an equal number of Sunni and Shiite troops, whether police or military, "so no violations can take place," said Hassan al-Shimmari, a spokesman and lawmaker from the Shiite Fadila party.
The troops at a checkpoint can keep an eye on each other to ensure neither side lets by a Shiite or a Sunni armed group to carry out an attack or covers up for a militia after an attack takes place, he said.
Sherif and another participant in the negotiations, Khalaf al-Alayan, head of the Sunni National Dialogue Council party, confirmed the details.
The central committee will meet in the coming days to work with the Interior and Defense ministries on arranging the balanced checkpoints, Sherif said.
In other developments, the head of a hospital that treated police officers who fell ill after a Sunday evening meal at their base said spoiled food served at a mess hall was the cause.
Dr. Matheel Alwan, the head of Kut General Hospital, said samples of the yogurt and hamburgers served at the police base in Numaniyah had been sent to Baghdad to see which of them were contaminated. "It was either spoiled hamburger, or spoiled yogurt," he said.
Kut hospital admitted 53 of the estimated 350 to 400 policemen for treatment, and pumped the stomachs and immediately released many others, Alwan said. They were suffering from severe vomiting with traces of blood, dehydration and diarrhea _ typical symptoms of food poisoning, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The final policeman treated was discharged Tuesday, Alwan said.
The question remains whether the policemen were knowingly served spoiled food or if it was accidental.
On Monday, military spokesman Brig. Qassim al-Moussawi said the man in charge of the mess hall had been arrested along with several others and that an investigation was ongoing.
At that time, he said investigators were pursuing the theory that spoiled food could have been served as part of a corruption scheme by the contractors or officers at the base to skim off funds for the food. He suggested that it was more likely, however, that the food had been poisoned as part of an "intentional sabotage" attempt.
Al-Moussawi did not answer repeated phone calls Tuesday.
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Hundreds of Iraqi Police Poisoned
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BAGHDAD, Iraq - Hundreds of Iraqi policemen fell sick from poisoning Sunday at a base in southern Iraq after the evening meal breaking their daily Ramadan fast, and officials said they were investigating whether the poisoning was intentional.
An official with the Environment Ministry said 11 policemen had died. However, the governor of Wasit province _ where the poisoning took place _ denied any deaths, though he said some of the victims were in critical condition. There was no immediate explanation for the contradictory reports.
Some of the policemen began bleeding from the ears and nose after the meal, said Jassim al-Atwan, an inspector for the Environment Ministry, who was serving as a liaison in the investigation between the Health Ministry and the base, located in the town of Numaniyah.
"Hundreds of soldiers were poisoned after taking food and water in the iftar," Wasit Gov. Hamad al-Latif told the Associated Press, referring to the meal that breaks the sunrise-to-sunset fast during the Islamic holy month. "Investigations are under way to determine the cause."
Samples of the food and water were being tested "to determine the substance in them" and will be sent to Baghdad for further tests, al-Latif said.
Sunni insurgents who have targeted police and military forces with bombings and shootings have not been known to use poisoning as a weapon. But the suddenness and severity of the sickness raised speculation that the incident could be a new attack. The division is mainly made up of Shiites.
Between 600-700 policemen were affected to varying degrees, and 11 who had the heaviest amount of the food had died, al-Atwan told The Associated Press.
Some of the soldiers collapsed as soon as they stood up from them meal, others fell "one after the other" as they headed out to the yard in the base to line up in formation, al-Atwan said.
Iraqi ambulances and helicopters sent by the U.S. military rushed the policemen to hospitals in Numaniyah and the nearby city of Kut.
The afflicted policemen belonged to the 4th Division of the National Police, nicknamed the "Karrar" Division, after a title of Imam Ali, the most revered Shiite saint.
The division normally operates around the town of Salman Pak on the southeastern outskirts of Baghdad _ an area of intense Shiite-Sunni killings. The division was sent to the base in Numaniyah, 60 miles southeast of the capital, for further training.
Al-Latif said food and water at the base are provided by an Australian contractor working through Iraqi subcontractors. He did not identify the Australian firm.
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34 Killed
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Baghdad, Car bombs, as well as other explosions and shootings, killed 34 people across the country Wednesday. At least 21 U.S. soldiers have been killed since Saturday, a disproportionately high number. Most of the casualties have been in Baghdad amid a massive security sweep by American and Iraqi forces that has been going on since August
At least 52 Die In Violence Around Iraq
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Earlier Tuesday, a suicide bomber detonated a belt rigged with explosives in an outdoor fish market in the primarily Sunni area of Sadiyah in southwestern Baghdad, killing three people and wounding 19, police said.
Hours later, four mortars hit homes in another Sunni district, killing seven people and wounding 25.
The mixed city of Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, saw a string of deadly attacks. Gunmen opened fire on a Shiite family trying to flee the city, killing five of them. Later, the bodies of a woman and two men lay on the street near the family truck, billowing smoke.
In addition, eight people were killed in another shooting in Baqouba, and two others died in a roadside bombing.
Attacks elsewhere in Baghdad and around the country killed 17 other people.
Ten more bodies also were found, the apparent victims of sectarian slayings. They included seven bodies in an area north of Baqouba, identified as a father, three sons and three other relatives from a Shiite family.
In the mainly Shiite south, the bodies of two women _ one beheaded, the other burned _ were found in Kut, while a former army officer was discovered dead and handcuffed in Amarah.
Talks on creating joint security committees to end the violence must tackle a range of issues _ including how many members will be on the panels, the proportion of Shiites and Sunnis and which areas of Baghdad they will cover.
Khalilzad said the committees would include Shiite and Sunni political, religious and tribal leaders as well as military figures.
The intent is that each committee will oversee the effort against violence in its district _ with a central body overseeing them and working with security forces. But it still must be decided what powers the committees will have and how decisions will be reached. Every month, the parties will meet to review progress.
Sunnis hope the committees will give them a voice to ensure that security forces go after Shiite militias. But it remains unclear whether the new system will lead to tougher action. Shiite leaders insist the main problem is attacks by Sunni insurgents.
Al-Alayan, the Sunni lawmaker, said the two sides made progress in talks over the weekend and agreed on banning weapons and militias. But when a representative of Muqtada al-Sadr, a radical Shiite cleric who holds a place in the government and heads a powerful militia, joined talks Monday, "everything was overturned" and the ban was put aside.
Still, al-Sadr's party signed onto the new security plan.
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38 Seized In Mass Kidnappings in 2 Days, Dozens Killed
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BAGHDAD, Iraq - Parliament extended Iraq's state of emergency Monday as gunmen seized 14 employees from computer stores in downtown Baghdad in the second mass kidnapping in as many days.
Seven cars pulled up to the shops in front of Baghdad's Technical University, and gunmen wearing military-style uniforms surrounded the buildings, police Lt. Thair Mahmoud said. The attackers then forced the employees outside and into sport utility vehicles at gunpoint, he said.
On Sunday evening, 24 workers at a food factory in Baghdad were seized by gunmen who shot and wounded two workers who refused to climb into a refrigerated truck with their fellow captives. Seven bodies found late Sunday in the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Dora were identified Monday as people who had been abducted in the raid on the food factory, Police Lt. Maitham Abdul Razzaq said.
Similar mass kidnappings in the past have been blamed on either Sunni extremists or Shiite death squads, who sort the captives by their sect and kill their targets.
Lawmakers from the Iraqi Islamic Party, a major Sunni political group, issued a statement accusing militias in the latest kidnappings, and urged the government to take "serious and urgent steps to disband these criminal organizations."
In other sectarian violence, dozens of bodies were found in and around Baghdad. At least 18 people also were killed in other attacks, including a noontime bomb blast in Baghdad's downtown Al-Nasir Square that killed four and wounded 13.
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